The state House of Representatives approved a new, but flawed, standard for roll-call voting last week. The Legislature should return to the issue next session in favor of a more comprehensive bill.
While the House rules change provides an expansion of roll-call voting, it doesn’t provide for the same level of accountability as a bill proposed by Rep. Nikki Haley, R-Lexington. Unfortunately, Rep. Haley wasn’t allowed to amend the rules change during last week’s organizational meeting.
If there had been a thoughtful review of the issue, maybe the new roll-call rules would be as sweeping as those proposed by Rep. Haley. Maybe there wouldn’t have been the flawed provision that records absent legislators as voting “aye” on matters before the House.
A few weeks ago, the S.C. Policy Council revealed the general absence of recorded votes and concluded that South Carolina probably has the weakest requirements in the nation for legislative roll-call voting. The nonpartisan think-tank found that the House took recorded votes only 8 percent of the time and the Senate only 1 percent of the time.
Unfortunately, the council’s follow-up review of the change endorsed by the House last week concluded that more needs to be done. It cited a variety of critical legislation that would still be exempt from the roll-call requirement, including conference committee reports, individual sections of the state budget, second reading of bills and third reading of amended bills.
Without adequate requirements for roll-call votes, how can taxpayers know where their legislators stand on issues? How can voters decide whom to support on Election Day?
Rep. Haley’s proposal has 30 co-sponsors, and legislative support has been growing weekly. The measure has both Republican and Democratic support in the House. In the tri-county area, however, all but one of the co-sponsors are Democrats: Reps. Robert Brown and Seth Whipper of Charleston, Vida Miller of Georgetown (who also represents northern Charleston County), and Patsy Knight of Dorchester. Joe Daning of Berkeley is a Republican.
Rep. Haley’s bill also has the backing of Gov. Mark Sanford, who described last week’s rules change as one that “will not provide the maximum amount of transparency the people of this state have asked for.” He added, “This issue is one that’s worth revisiting in January.”
He’s right. The Policy Council has revealed the shortcomings of the system, and legislators should address the issue with more substantive and comprehensive improvements. They can be assured that the public will support their efforts.
The Post & Courier
December 7, 2008
