H. 4801 Free Conference Report – Pioneer Rural Water District

Board Membership
-Board comprised of 5 members to represent distinct territories within district’s service area.
-Board members must be qualified electors of Oconee or Anderson county, reside in the territory they represent, and are customers of the district.

Board Membership Terms
-Board members will be elected by qualified customers for 3-year terms (currently appointed by Governor upon recommendation of majority of customers).
-Qualified customers must be residents of the district’s service area and qualified electors of Anderson or Oconee county. One vote per household.
-Sixty days prior to an election to fill a board member’s seat, a territory meeting will be held to nominate up to 2 individuals to be placed on the ballot. Procedure established for providing notice to customers of meetings – newspaper ad, post on district’s website and written notice included in customer’s bill.

District’s Investment/Rates
-Prior to the board making an investment of $1 million or more, it must have an independent audit. This audit would be provided to the Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) to verify the audit’s assumptions.
-Board would present independent audit to its customers before entering into the investment. Procedure established for providing notice to customers of meetings – newspaper ad, post on district’s website and written notice included in customer’s bill.
-Board must consider, at a minimum, ratepayers’ interest, the district’s financial integrity and economic development of the service area.
-Provide to ORS by July 1st each year information regarding rates (for informational purposes only).

We’re making an attempt to have an online updated vote counts as they come in. As you know, the poll managers post the results after the polls are closed before they bring the ballot machines to the civic center for the official count. We’ve got volunteers phoning in the results as they are posted at each precinct. If all this works, we’ll have an unofficial count very early.

click here to view the public spreadsheet

Also, we’ll be collecting the numbers for the Council race (Crowder/Benca) and the House race (Putnam/Johnson)

Dear Friends,
On the eve of Election Day, I want to say thanks for the opportunity to serve you in the General Assembly. If I am blessed with re-election tomorrow, I will continue to fight hard for our conservative values. I look forward to that opportunity.

As this ballot fiasco affected most races in Anderson County, it did not affect our race, the Republican Primary for SC Senate District 3. However, if re-elected, I am committed rectifying the recent injustice done to so many people who tried to run for office in this election. It is unfair to the voters who wanted a true choice on their ballot.

Immediately after the first court’s blow to free elections, I sponsored this bill on May 5th as a remedy, unfortunately it failed.

I also introduced a bill that would eliminate straight ticket voting to take away the advantage partisan candidates have over petition and write in candidates. This bill never got a hearing. Obviously, the legislature is more interested in protecting its own, than being accountable to the voters.

The court rulings thus far have disenfranchised several hundred candidates and millions of South Carolina voters. It’s been a bi-partisan effort. Democrats have been behind some of the lawsuits and a few “Republican” lawmakers have used the courts to protect their positions of power. It is hard enough to fight the liberals in Columbia, but when so-called “Republicans” and their minions conspire to keep conservatives off of the ballot, then change becomes more difficult.

I have encouraged all candidates to pursue a petition campaign. Tuesday’s primary is an excellent opportunity to collect signatures to place a candidate on the ballot for November’s election. A petition candidacy is much more effective than write-in campaigns.

A collection of volunteers will be assigned at many precincts to ask the voters to sign. I would even urge you to sign these petition(s) even if you don’t support the particular candidate. Whatever your political philosophy may be, we all agree that free elections are not possible when candidacies are denied over simple technicalities.

Again, thank you for your support. We’ll be having an election party Tuesday night at the Corner Bagel Shop on Greenville Street at 7:30pm as we collect the results. We’d love to have you.

Sincerely,

Kevin Bryant, Senator for district 3, also one of the highest scores on the Palmetto Liberty score card, is a solid vote for life, liberty, and defense of private property. He was the primary sponsor of the South Carolina Constitutional Carry Act of 2012 that would restore our right to keep and bear arms without government infringement. He needs to return in order to continue to fight for our right to self defense.