State Legislatures · 3 posts
Lede Brief 2d ago

McMaster Announces Special Session to Redraw Congressional Maps

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to call a special session to revisit the state's congressional district maps, according to NBC News. The move follows a bipartisan vote in which several Republican state senators crossed party lines to reject a redistricting plan that would have likely cost Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state's longest-serving congressman and a senior House Democrat, his seat.

Source: NBC News Politics Redistricting2026MidtermsStateLegislatures
Brief 2d ago

South Carolina Governor Announces Special Session on Redistricting

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to call a special session of the South Carolina legislature to redraw the state's congressional map, according to CBS News. The move follows a failed procedural vote Tuesday; a special session requires only a simple majority, clearing the threshold that blocked the bill. Said state Sen. Tom Davis, a Republican who voted against the measure: "South Carolina's maps are legally sound, our electoral position is strong, and the process being proposed remains constitutionally and practically indefensible."

Source: CBS News Politics Redistricting2026MidtermsStateLegislatures
Numbers of the Day 3d ago
236
election-related bills enacted across 34 states through April 24, 2026

That figure is 66% above the comparable point in 2024 and nearly two-and-a-half times the 96 bills enacted at this stage in 2022, per Ballotpedia's State of Election Policy 2026 Spring Report. Legislators have also introduced 4,427 election bills and resolutions this year — nearly matching all of 2025's full-year total. The long arc here is instructive: concentrated bursts of state-level election-law rewriting have historically followed contested or delegitimized federal elections, from the post-Reconstruction rollback of the 1870s through the post-2020 wave. What distinguishes 2026 is the volume on both sides of the partisan ledger — Republican trifectas account for 53.4% of enacted bills, Democratic trifectas 37.7% — suggesting the norm of stable, bipartisan election administration is giving way to a race in which each coalition treats the rules themselves as a battleground to be won before voters ever cast a ballot.

Source: Ballotpedia News VotingRightsLongMemoryStateLegislatures