Haley: Senate’s open-voting plan a ‘scam’

On a voice vote, the full Senate later accepted the committee’s bid to put the proposal on a priority slot on the fading Senate calendar, giving it a greater chance to pass the chamber this session.

But Haley labeled the Senate’s effort to pass off as “transparent” lawmakers’ votes published in the Senate Journal at the end of the day “an embarrassment to the state of South Carolina.”

The Senate Rules Committee, in what could be seen as a concession to House pressure, passed out a proposal in which senators who have not been granted formal leave will be recorded as voting “yes,” or on the prevailing side, of any issue that comes up for a vote — unless the lawmaker stipulates otherwise.

A senator could notify the clerk he wants to be recorded on the non-prevailing side of a vote up until 30 minutes past adjournment.

Then, in the daily Senate Journal, which is published at the end of a Senate business day and also put online, the bill would be printed along with the vote of each individual senator on that piece of legislation, and the vote total.

Senators who are not in the chamber at the time of a vote can be recorded in the daily journal as to how they would have voted if they had been present.

But for practical purposes on the Senate floor, voice votes would continue.

Haley, a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor this year, said that makes a “mockery” of transparency.

For $2,500 to $3,500, Haley said, the Senate could purchase software to be installed on Senate laptop computers so that the Senate’s real-time votes could be captured. “It amazes me how certain senators will do anything they can to avoid hitting a button to show how they voted,” Haley said.

A bell rings in both the House and Senate when a recorded vote is required under each chamber’s rules, and though the House has an electronic voting board that shows its recorded votes, the House also still allows voice votes.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, a guardian of Senate procedure, said the Rules Committee proposal should satisfy critics. “This gives 100 percent total transparency to the business of the Senate,” McConnell said.

On Tuesday, the Senate went through the motions of requiring a recorded vote on each issue to come up, and it took the Senate nearly four hours to plow through the daily calendar and get down to debate on the pressing issue on its calendar that day — a fire sprinkler bill.

Senate Minority Leader John Land, D-Clarendon, said the Senate proceedings Tuesday were “like watching kindergarten.”

Haley dismissed that exercise. “This is nothing more than a scam and watered-down version to hide their vote,” Haley said.