Public Hearing for Re-Districting

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Residents of South Carolina’s northeastern counties packed a Senate redistricting hearing and asked lawmakers to create a new U.S. House district that keeps their counties together. Some packed a bus chartered for the hearing Monday. Some wore buttons that asked lawmakers to keep the state’s new seventh district in the state’s Pee Dee region. That area includes the counties along the coast and Myrtle Beach as well as rural counties inland and along the state line with North Carolina. They wanted senators to adopt a plan the House has approved. Redistricting happens every decade to conform to Census population changes. Those changes showed South Carolina added enough population to gain the seat. The plans the Legislature agrees to require federal review under the Voting Rights Act. (Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)