Editorials from across South Carolina: absentee voting, Claflin progress, SC jobs expansion

Absentee voting

The next logical step for S.C. legislators is to pass a bill allowing early voting.

As of now, you can vote before Election Day in our state via “absentee voting.” To do so, you must sign an oath that you qualify for that option under at least one of 16 reasonable criteria on Election Day, including being a military member serving outside your home county, serving as a juror, being hospitalized or being 65 or older.

But there’s no checking the validity of those exemptions.

Roughly 20 percent of S.C. voters in the last presidential election four years ago voted via the absentee route. Commission officials expect that level to continue to rise this year.

In other words, a lot of folks are falsely signing an oath so they can vote early.

It’s unfortunate but predictable that too many politicians lie to voters to get their support.

Still, voters shouldn’t also have to lie to cast their ballots early.

Claflin progress

Claflin officials announced that the university exceeded the $100 million goal of the Imagine the Possibilities Capital Campaign launched five years ago. The grand total to date is $105,153,431.19.

“When we launched the public phase of the campaign in 2011, it was designed to reposition Claflin as one of the top teaching and research institutions in the nation. It was the most ambitious fundraising effort in the university’s history,” (President Henry) Tisdale said.

“We overcame a lot of obstacles, including a struggling economy, but we did it,” he said.

As a result of the campaign, Claflin supported numerous achievements and campus improvements such as:

Doubling the number of endowed scholarships from 100 to more than 200.

Endowing three professorships and one academic department chairmanship.

Increased funding for scholarships for high-achieving high school seniors.

Purchasing two nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers.

Campus-wide Wi-Fi.

Renovations of buildings.

New chapel.

Establishing the online program in 2014.

“We now have resources that will expand learning and research opportunities for Claflin’s globally engaged visionary students and faculty,” Tisdale said.

Such opportunities are what brought the four young scholars lost on Oct. 13 to the Orangeburg university — and the resources from the capital campaign will ensure that many can walk in their footsteps toward the quality higher education they were pursuing.

Jobs expansion

Each little step can and usually does matter. Whether that’s watching a child pull up from a crawl and take his or her first couple of steps or seeing a county’s economic development vibrancy take more steps forward.

To some, 50 jobs might not seem like much. In the general scheme of things, that would be true. But the fact that Pro Towels in Abbeville County is able to expand its plant and add 50 jobs is quite significant. A U.S. Department of Agriculture zero-interest loan of $1 million made this step possible and was done in concert with West Carolina Rural Telephone Cooperative Inc.

Pro Towels currently employs 150 people. Again, not a — er — yooooooooooge number of people, but big enough to make a difference in Abbeville County. Add to that the fact that this is an operation that could just as easily be located overseas and you can see there is plenty of reason to applaud Monday’s announced expansion that will, during the course of the next five years, add more jobs.

The plant manufactures more than plain towels of the bath and hand variety. You’ve seen or spun over your head the towels waved at football games, right? Rally towels, they’re called. Well, some of those are made right here in Abbeville County. Logoed golf towels that players hang from their bags for wiping their clubs and balls? Yep.…

Isn’t it good, then, to know that we have a manufacturing facility that is not only still alive and still within the borders of the United States, but also is able to grow and expand? Shouldn’t you be glad they haven’t thrown in the towel and moved overseas instead? Absolutely.

This story was originally published October 31, 2016 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Editorials from across South Carolina: absentee voting, Claflin progress, SC jobs expansion."