The SC Progressive Network will hold its 16th annual fall strategy summit Oct. 29 at Brookland Baptist Fellowship Hall, 1066 Sunset Blvd., West Columbia. Grassroots activists from across the state will gather to co-ordinate plans for the coming legislative session and beyond.

“We have been building a statewide progressive movement for 16 years,” said Network Director Brett Bursey. “We are now faced with historic opportunities due to Wall Street greed, anti-government politicians, and a state budget robbed by special interests.”

Most recently, the Network has been leading a grassroots fight against special-interest tax breaks that keep billions out of the state budget.

It also has been working hard to educate and mobilize communities statewide in an effort to block South Carolina’s new voter ID law.

“The unnecessary and costly requirement for voters to have a state-issued photo ID is a partisan attempt to suppress the vote,” said Network Co-Chair Rep. Joe Neal. “It is no coincidence that minorities, seniors, students, rural and low-income voters will be most affected, as they historically vote Democratic. We will continue our work to have this law blocked.”

In its Oct. 26 response to the US Dept. of Justice, the State Election Commission deleted voters who have been dropped from the list of voters without photo IDs due to a criminal conviction.

“There are tens of thousands of voters who have completed a criminal sentence, who are eligible to vote, who won’t be notified of the new law,” said Rep. Neal. “There are over a quarter-million registered voters without DMV IDs, and there is no doubt that many of them will be disenfranchised.”

Network Co-Chair Donna Dewitt is also the President of the SC AFL-CIO, a statewide federation representing over 80,000 current and former union members. “The governor has declared outright war on workers rights, and is making the ridiculous argument that our economy can be improved by suppressing wages,” Dewitt said. “We’ve got to connect the dots between the anti-worker, anti-immigrant, anti-minority laws being passed and expose them as the corporate power grab that they are.”

The summit begins with a 10am meeting of organizations and individual activists for Network housekeeping. The meeting is open to anyone interested in knowing more about the Network and its coalition members.

At 1:30, the public is invited to take part in an engaging presentation by Dr. Mike Fanning of the tax reform group ROAR SC, who will argue that the state’s not broke; the system is. His show is part comedy and 100 percent shocking truth. Dr. Fanning will field questions from the audience. Later, we’ll move the discussion to tactics and strategy to move this issue in the coming months.

“If you are concerned about the economy and the corporate-sponsored assault on democracy, you don’t want to miss this event,” Bursey said. “These are the hard times we have been preparing for.”

You don’t need to be a Network member to attend. Nor do you need to stay the whole day. Come when you can; leave when you must.

Registration is $10, which includes a Mexican buffet at 12:30 catered by Tio’s. The public session beginning at 1:30 is free. RSVP required for lunch at 803-808-3384 or network@scpronet.com.

By JIM DAVENPORT
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s new voter photo identification law appears to be disproportionately affecting minority voters in one of the state’s largest counties and black precincts elsewhere, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.
For instance, nearly half the voters who cast ballots at a historically black college in Columbia lack state-issued photo identification and could face problems voting in next year’s presidential election, according to the analysis of precinct-level data provided by the state Election Commission.

In surrounding Richland County, the state’s second-most populous county, the percentage of minority voters without the IDs is also higher than what it is statewide. The same is true for majority-black Orangeburg County.

“This is electoral genocide,” state Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian said. “This is disenfranchising huge groups of people who don’t have the money to go get an ID card.”

State Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said the numbers show there is work ahead for the state.
“It means they would have to take some action to get proper ID,” Whitmire said.

South Carolina’s photo identification law requires people to show a state-issued driver’s license or identification card, a military ID or passport when they vote. Without those forms of identification, they can still cast a provisional ballot or vote absentee. The U.S. Justice Department has been reviewing the law for months under the federal Voting Rights Act.

South Carolina is among the five states that passed laws this year requiring some form of ID at the polls, while such laws were already on the books in Indiana and Georgia.

Proponents of the laws say they will prevent fraud, although even they are hard-pressed to come up with large numbers of cases around the country in which someone tried to vote under a false identity. Opponents say the laws are a way to effectively keep minorities, traditionally Democratic voters, away from the polls. They argue that blacks, Hispanics, senior citizens, people with disabilities and the poor are more likely to lack the required photo ID.

In South Carolina, previously-reported statewide numbers suggested that, overall, the law’s effect on white and nonwhite voters would conform to the state’s voting demographics: 70 percent of the state’s 2.7 million registered voters are white and 30 percent are nonwhite. Meanwhile, 66 percent of the 216,596 active, registered voters without state-issued photo IDs are white and 34 percent nonwhite.

But the numbers can skew differently at the local level. Lacking state-issued IDs are 11,087 nonwhite voters in Richland County and 4,544 in Orangeburg County. That means half the voters affected by the law in Richland County aren’t white, and in Orangeburg County it’s 73 percent.

A statewide look at the 2,134 individual precincts also indicates that black precincts are some of the hardest-hit. The analysis shows there are 10 precincts where nearly all of those affected are minorities, a total of 1,977 voters.

The same holds true for white voters in a number of precincts, but the overall effect is much more spread out and involves fewer total voters: There are 44 precincts where only white voters are affected, or 1,831 people in all.

The precinct that votes at Benedict College in Columbia, has 2,790 voters, including nine white voters. In that precinct, 1,343 of the precinct’s nonwhite voters lack state identification, but only five white voters do.

Karen Rutherford has run voter registration efforts at the private, historically black college across town from the Statehouse and a couple of blocks from the county’s voter office for years. She said students had a tough time in the 2008 election as their IDs were challenged at the precinct. “They were upset because someone was trying to take away their ability to vote.”

A precinct at state-run South Carolina State University has 2,305 active voters, including 33 white voters. There, 800 nonwhite voters and 17 white voters there lack state IDs.

The new law doesn’t bar voting for people without photo identification, but it can create hurdles. They’ll still be able to vote absentee by mail, go to voter offices and get new voter registration cards with pictures or cast provisional ballots that require them to later produce the ID.

The state is offering free ID cards. To get those, people have to show documents that include their name, such as birth certificates, marriage or divorce records.

Republican Gov. Nikki Haley supports the law and offered voters without IDs free rides to state offices to get them last month.
The law requires the state to develop a list of names of people who lack state-issued identification. And the Justice Department has asked the state to document how it will reach out to those voters. South Carolina’s election law changes have to be cleared by federal authorities because of past voting rights abuses.

Sept. 20, 2011 is a day to celebrate! Why? Because it marks the official repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and we are celebrating loud and proud in South Carolina.

In Columbia, join SC Equality, The Harriet Hancock Center and Service Members Legal Defense Network (SLDN) for a celebration ceremony including comments from Rep. James Smith at the Veterans Memorial, followed by an after-party at Blue!

In Charleston, we partner with Take-Over Charleston, AFFA, and SLDN for a celebration including live music and great speakers at Taco Boy! Details here.

SC Equality and AFFA are longtime members of the SC Progressive Network.

By Christine Johnson
SC Equality

I was frankly a little scared when I returned to South Carolina for employment in 2010. Raised in Charleston 30 years ago and recalling the discrimination my African-American friends endured, I suspected that as an open lesbian, I might face similar discrimination and lack of understanding. I knew some people would think I “chose” to be lesbian and that I was both unpatriotic and godless. I knew many would not understand the way I value family and treasure authenticity or my profound respect for the Constitution.

When I came home, however, I remembered that I was also proud of the richness of diversity, culture and tradition that makes South Carolina my true home. We celebrate arguably the best cooking in the country and the most gracious hospitality, and we know the value of simple kindness. We are diverse in race, ethnicity and faith, and when it really comes down to it, we respect one another as fellow South Carolinians.

Make no mistake, I’ve found my fair share of unkind folk. I’ve been the target of disrespectful gestures, called tasteless names and heard jokes at my expense, but mostly found that “bless your heart” is the common response to sharing my sexual orientation and work in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy. In addition, I’ve found a LGBT community that, although challenged and discriminated against, thrives in my home state. And you know why? Because like you, South Carolina is their home too, and we share a similar adoration of this beautiful place.

People both in and out of South Carolina are surprised to learn that in 2008, the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School estimated there were 117, 500 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people living here. And according to the 2010 Census, there are 11, 532 same-sex couples in our state.

But the numbers shouldn’t surprise us, because there is no difference in the per capita number of homosexuals born in South Carolina than in California or New York — and apparently, home is where your heart is.

Last summer, S.C. Equality conducted a survey of more than 1,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender South Carolinians, from 44 of 46 counties. More than half had lived in South Carolina for more than 20 years, 86 percent were raised Protestant, 64 percent attend church, and nearly 10 percent had served in the armed forces. So there it is: We are growing in number and love our state, are patriotic and God-fearing, and I suspect that when all is said and done, there is no constitutional or justifiable reason to treat fellow South Carolinians as less than equal under the law.

Yes, there are those who perceive homosexuality a choice and a sin according to their beliefs, and I can respect that. But we cannot grant rights, protections and entitlement to only some people based upon our religious beliefs. Our federal Constitution grants equal protections, and creating classes of people based upon discrimination is unconstitutional. There’s simply no way around it.

So, we can agree to disagree, each with individual opinions and beliefs, voting our consciences, but at the end of the day, we are all South Carolinians with hopes and dreams for our families and our futures. Although there is much that makes us different, there is so much more that makes us one. Different isn’t bad, diversity is a blessing, and for me, home absolutely is where my heart is.

Johnson is a former two-term member of the Utah House of Representatives, and is executive director of S.C. Equality, a longtime member of the SC Progressive Network.