In this episode, Grace wades through the challenges to representative democracy in South Carolina, emphasizing the importance of voter participation in primaries. It critiques the state's system by highlighting issues such as gerrymandering, low voter turnout in primaries, and the dominance of a single party in legislature due to these factors. Grace expresses concern over the lack of competition in elections, which undermines the principle of one person, one vote. She encourages you to vote in the upcoming primaries to ensure a more balanced and representative government.
00:00 Exploring the State of Democracy in the U.S.
00:32 The Challenges of South Carolina's Democracy
01:03 The Importance and Issues of Primary Elections
02:07 Voter Participation and Its Impact
03:12 The Consequences of Low Voter Turnout
04:15 Analyzing the Political Landscape and Power Dynamics
Be The Ones - Be The Ones is a nonpartisan grassroots organization that aims to build healthier communities, promote a more equitable democracy, and expand power by removing barriers to local civic participation across the Southeast. Their mission is to address the civic information and participation health crisis, which is essential for a well-functioning society and democracy.
The United States is a representative democracy where the people rule by regularly electing representatives who make the laws that govern us all. So how democratic is our state system and how's it working? A basic principle of a representative democracy is one person, one vote. Each citizen should have an equal say in electing representatives, which then influence the laws of our state.
Grace:
No one vote should mean more than another. That is how it's supposed to work. I said this on this podcast before, that South Carolina is not currently a representative democracy. And there are so many reasons for that, that we will cover in a deeper conversation coming up on Frogmore Stew. Things like independent redistricting committees, and why we desperately need them.
Grace:
Citizen referendums, which is one of our key powers as citizens. Automatic voter registration, and things like gerrymandering that we've already covered. But lastly, the primaries. The primary elections take place in South Carolina on June 11th, five months before the general election this year. When filing for office begins, a lot of people throw their name in the hat.
Grace:
And many races have multiple people from the same party running for the same seat. So to be nominated by your party to be the candidate for that seat, you must win the primary. In South Carolina, We have what's called open primaries. And this means that regardless of your party registration or your independent status, you can vote in either the Republican primary or the Democrat primary, but you can only vote in one of the state party primaries, not both.
Grace:
The state primaries are important because this is when you can see a wide range of candidates, even from the same party. There are far left and far right, moderates, traditionalists. This process is supposed to whittle down the best candidate running for each seat that the party will then send on to the general election in November.
Grace:
But here's the catch. Almost no one votes in the state primaries. It ranges by district and participation, but it's typically 4 to 10 percent of voters that vote in the state primaries. And those voters are typically the most extreme and the most vocal. So think about that. In a state house district, which usually represents about 41, 000 people, typically only about 4, 000 people vote in that state primary.
Grace:
And here's some additional stats. 75 percent of all eligible South Carolinians are registered to vote. That's a big number. That sounds great, but the average voter participation in local and state elections is 16%. And in our last election 76 percent of all races were uncontested, meaning there was only one person in the race.
Grace:
You can follow our friends at Be The Ones on social media to stay on top of all things voting and lots of statistics like the ones I just read. They're an amazing resource for our state. Voter participation in uncontested races have a lot to do with our gerrymandered districts. Because the way our districts have been drawn, not by an independent council, but by a Republican majority legislature, they're essentially set up so that one party is ensured to win in every single district.
Grace:
You can listen to our episode called Slay the Gerrymander to learn more about that. So the primary becomes even more important because whoever wins the primary is basically guaranteed to win the general election. It also means that when extreme bills come up in the state house and senate, a majority of the legislators voting on those bills weren't even really elected by we the people, the majority, and they only need to be concerned with about 7 percent of the voters in their district that vote in those primaries.
Grace:
The most active and typically extreme of the voters are those that vote in the primary. Our current state laws are a reflection of a small minority of us. Let's look at the House. The makeup of our state House is 88 Republicans to 36 Democrats. That's called a supermajority, which means the Democrats basically have no power to do anything.
Grace:
The state Senate is 30 Republicans, 15 Democrats, and one Independent. Missing a supermajority only by one seat. This election season, in the statehouse, there are only five races that really could be considered swing districts, and five more that are long shot swing districts. In the state senate, there are two.
Grace:
So the districts are basically predetermined. And the even more frustrating thing is that when a statewide election happens, the difference between Republicans and Democrats is only about 250, 000 votes out of 3 million. The people making our laws and running our state aren't actually being elected by us.
Grace:
They are running without competition, without knocking on a door, without introducing themselves to voters, without talking to all of the people in their district, and more importantly, without listening to all of the people in their district. They don't have to campaign. So what do we do? Vote in the primary on June 11th.
Grace:
And don't worry, I will remind you many more times between now and then. It is imperative that every single one of us votes in the primaries. I know apathy has set in. It feels like a problem that is too far gone to fix, but it isn't. I promise you it isn't. As recently as 1992, the House and Senate were nearly opposite what they are today, with Democrats in the majority by a wide margin in both houses.
Grace:
I don't think that's effective either. I don't think one party rule is a good thing. We need a balanced and representative government with candidates that have to answer to all of their constituents, not just the few that vote in the primary. Voters are nuanced and don't typically align with every single platform of one party or the other.
Grace:
We need our government to act in good faith. We need our legislature and sheriffs and councils and school boards to reflect who all of us are. So Caitlin, TJ, and I have taken on the task of interviewing every single candidate running for state house and senate. Some have declined, we've been busy interviewing some really interesting candidates that we want to introduce you to. Beginning in mid-May we'll start airing all of those interviews so that you, the voter, can hear what every candidate thinks
Grace:
on issues facing the districts, issues facing the state, and a variety of insights that you may not hear from them anywhere else. There are more than 300 people running for the 124 house seats and 46 state senate seats. It is a giant task, but we think it's a first step in helping the state become more representative of the people in it.
Grace:
We're so excited to share this with you and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the candidates. You can always email us at info at frogmorestewsc.com or DM us on Instagram at frogmorestewsc. That's all this do for today.
