S.C. senators hold 1st of 10 redistricting hearings in Sumter

COLUMBIA (AP) - A group of South Carolina senators will travel across the state this week holding public hearings on how to draw new districts for South Carolina House and Senate seats as well as the U.S. House.

The Senate subcommittee handling redistricting is holding the first of 10 hearings during the next three weeks before lawmakers use the 2020 U.S. Census data to draw new maps.

They want to hear what citizens want and don't want done as the 46 state Senate districts, 124 state House districts and seven U.S. House districts are redrawn.

This week's hearings are Tuesday at the Gressette Building on Statehouse grounds in Columbia; Wednesday at Central Carolina Technical College in Sumter; and Thursday at York Technical College in Rock Hill. All of them start at 6:30 p.m.

The panel of four Republican senators and three Democrats will take testimony both in person and online.

Senators said they will likely have another round of public hearings after they propose their Senate map to the whole Senate.

The House has its own redistricting committee that will meet for the first time next month. The two chambers usually don't alter the other chamber's map. Both chambers will work together on the U.S. House map.

South Carolina added nearly 500,000 people from 2010 to 2020 to become the 23rd-largest state in the U.S. with 5.1 million people.