South Carolina can count itself dead last in the country in yet another category — legislative roll-call voting, according to a new report by the state’s leading conservative think tank, the South Carolina Policy Council.
The Palmetto State has the worst-in-the-nation ranking in recorded votes by the General Assembly, says the Nov. 12 report, a study of constitutional and legislative procedural rules for all 50 states.
For State House observers, the report comes less like a bombshell and more like a guided missile with impeccable timing, as lawmakers continue to clash over proposed legislation to require more on-the-record voting.
In April, Rep. Nikki Haley sponsored a bill to mandate roll-call voting on all proposed laws that would decide how the state spends tax dollars. The Lexington Republican is expected to introduce similar legislation when lawmakers re-convene in January.
In September, Haley and Policy Council president Ashley Landess flew around the state with Gov. Mark Sanford and Richland Republican Rep. Nathan Ballentine for a series of news conferences promoting Haley’s bill.
The report is the second one on roll-call voting that the Policy Council has issued in the past three months.
In the first report, the think tank urged the Legislature to record more of its votes and said the House did so only 8 percent of the time and the Senate only 1 percent in the most recent legislative session.
But not everyone is buying the Policy Council’s numbers.
In a recent op-ed in the Charleston Post and Courier, House Speaker Bobby Harrell, a Charleston Republican and frequent supporter of the Policy Council, blasted the report as “sloppy research” and questioned the motives of Haley’s bill.
“I believe requiring more roll-call voting in the General Assembly would be a good idea, but the Policy Council’s report has purposely and unfairly understated the actual number of roll-call votes taken by the House,” Harrell wrote.
A spokesman in Harrell’s office declined to comment, saying the editorial speaks for itself and Harrell’s position hasn’t changed.
In its latest report, the Policy Council found that South Carolina is one of only five states that do not require lawmakers to record their votes. And of those five, South Carolina is the most difficult in which to request or force a recorded vote.
“The lack of any requirement for lawmakers to record their votes on most legislation allows lawmakers to rely on anonymous voice votes for most matters,” the report says. “This makes it impossible for citizens to hold their representatives accountable.”
Some observers contend that it would be frivolous to require a roll call for certain votes, such as congratulatory measures for schools and community leaders.
“Demanding that we should spend taxpayer money to take a roll-call vote on a resolution congratulating a state championship high school team is not true transparency, it’s pandering,” Harrell says in a news release.
Responds Landess, “There is no good reason not to record every single vote.” She adds an exception for things the Legislature “shouldn’t be doing” in the first place.
But knowing who’s voting for what would do more than just wipe the Vaseline off the lens of an opaque government. It would also create a valuable tool for candidates to tout their campaigns or pummel their opposition.
BY COREY HUTCHINS
The Free Times
November 19, 2008
