Editorial Roundup: South Carolina

Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:

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March 3

The Post and Courier on a proposed bill that would require first-time convicted DUI offenders to install ignition interlock devices in their vehicles:

A third of the people who die on S.C. highways are killed by drunken drivers, and South Carolina has some of the most dangerous highways in the nation. One 2019 study showed only Wyoming has more alcohol-related traffic deaths per person than South Carolina.

A big reason: We don’t take advantage of one of the most powerful tools ever invented to keep drunks off the road: the ignition interlock device. Once the device is attached to the vehicle, it blocks the engine from starting until the driver blows into it and registers a blood-alcohol level of less than 0.02%. So someone who shouldn’t be driving simply can’t.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving says the devices have prevented 3 million drunk-driving trips in the United States.

South Carolina does have a law that requires people convicted of driving with nearly twice the legal amount of alcohol in their systems to have the devices installed in their cars, along with people who are convicted of a second or subsequent offense of driving under the influence. Emily’s Law, as it’s called, was passed in 2014, and the devices are stopping drunks from starting their cars about 2,000 times a year. Which is great. But not good enough.

Making the devices optional for most first-time offenders ignores the fact that people drive drunk an average of 80 times before they get arrested. And the law comes with a loophole so big that even people with a 0.15 blood-alcohol-content can speed through it. And they often do, by pleading guilty in return for having the charge reduced to a 0.08, with no interlock device.

A bill to require everybody convicted of first-offense DUI to install an ignition-interlock device is being considered by the House Judiciary Committee. S.18, which passed the Senate last year, brings South Carolina into line with 32 other states by requiring everyone convicted of a first-offense DUI to use an ignition-interlock device.

It also tackles that big loophole in the law involving people who refuse to take a blood-alcohol test, which can make a DUI conviction even more difficult than it normally is. People who refuse the test get their licenses suspended automatically, but they can get a temporary license and keep on driving for as long as they can delay a trial. The bill passed by the Senate requires them to have the ignition-interlock attached immediately.

Criminal defense attorneys on the House committee insisted on removing that provision from the bill, citing concerns over due process. That’s what they always say when South Carolina tries to make its DUI laws enforceable, and the Legislature too often listens, which is why our roads are so deadly for sober drivers, passengers, pedestrians - you name it. What they ignore is that driving is a privilege, not a right.

The good news is that even the defense-lawyer version of S.18 would go a long way toward making South Carolina’s roads safer. But the Senate version of the bill would save more lives still, so we hope the Judiciary Committee will restore the tougher version, and that the full House will pass this. Every day’s delay puts more innocent lives at risk.

Online: https://www.postandcourier.com/

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March 2

The Times and Democrat on candidates remembering South Carolina after the primaries:

No more television ads, no more mailers, no more campaign visits: The Democratic presidential candidates have said goodbye to South Carolina with Super Tuesday just a day away.

But Orangeburg native and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Jaime Harrison doesn’t want South Carolina forgotten.

In a letter to each of the Democratic candidates sent Thursday, Harrison is calling for their commitment to register and mobilize voters in South Carolina for the general election in November 2020.

“Although South Carolina is playing a pivotal role in this year’s Democratic primary, the voices of the people of South Carolina, including the over one million people of color who live here, in past years are always forgotten once the South Carolina Democratic primary has passed. This year, that status quo must change,” Harrison wrote in the letter.

South Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in the country and is home to 400,000 unregistered people of color. In the last generation, there has been no significant Democratic investment in registering voters of color in South Carolina, Harrison said.

Harrison wants the candidates to:

- Invest in voter registration efforts for South Carolina’s people of color.

- Pledge to invest in or organize voter mobilization operations in South Carolina for the November general election.

- Support down-ballot candidates in South Carolina and across the nation.

Harrison will be facing veteran Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in November, and even with record fundraising, he will need a lot of assistance from the national party if he is to have a chance.

Registering a lot of unregistered African American voters and getting them to vote for him is critical in a race that is an uphill battle in a state that is solid Republican red.

Democrats had good reason to pay attention to South Carolina this February but a lot less incentive to do so from now through November. The state has no Democrat holding statewide office and has not voted for a Democrat for president since Jimmy Carter in 1976. It has two Democrats in Congress, and one of those is by no means assured of re-election in a district that has been Republican for decades.

Harrison knows the state will not see much in the way of campaign activity from the eventual Democratic nominee, but if he can get any measure of backing from the present candidates and the party to achieve his objectives, his campaign will get a significant boost.

Online: https://thetandd.com/

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Feb. 28

The Aiken Standard on new voting technology:

Hearing on the national stage that advanced technology used in other states caused ballot counting to slow to a snail’s pace doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in the election process.

It’s relevant because South Carolina voters head to the polls today for the Democratic presidential primary.

And the last thing we need right now is distrust when casting and counting ballots.

So, we started asking questions.

We first talked to Cynthia Holland with Registration and Elections when new voting machines were being introduced in Aiken County in August 2019. They’ve been used several times and the new equipment has been applauded at every step.

But now there’s the Iowa debacle and we’re hearing the frightening phrase “digital disruption” seeping back into the conversation.

Digital disruption is global.

Like the business of voting, almost every business is now impacted by technology. It’s hard to think of an industry or segment of society that has evaded its touch. Locally, we hear talk of advanced manufacturing, virtual reality, robotics, science labs, (hopefully) broadband and increased connectivity, as well as tele-doc and other ways the digital realm improves access to the medical field.

Even your hometown newspaper the Aiken Standard is reaching more people with technology than possible with carriers on bicycles to the tune of more than 250,000 users and 1.55 million pages viewed on the aikenstandard.com news site each month. And more than half of you are reading this from a tiny computer in your palm.

But disruption can also be bad.

A recent Pew Research Center study reported that folks are making an argument that digital advances are disrupting democracy. Yes, democracy. Generally, the results fan the pessimistic flame in most of us.

Respondents believe our government won’t react quickly enough or monitor the mass communication in our best interest, or the average Joe will not be able to follow the superhighway or discern truth and fairness, even pointing out that most of us will be vulnerable to web terrorists and grow out of touch with reality.

It can be a negative spiral of deception and a true disruption to public trust and shared experiences.

We see the free flow of altered videos, images and ads on social media. And those terrible political commercials have many of us thinking, “Is that true?”

Hacking. Surveillance. The dark web.

Makes us long for the days of the good old-fashioned printed newspaper. Stories about people you know, written by Aiken reporters who, like the rest of South Carolina, can go out and vote today.

Maybe, deep down, we are all still yearning for a paper ballot.

Online: https://www.aikenstandard.com/