A bill that would combine the Dorchester County Election Commission and the county's Board of Voter Registration is in the hands of a local senator who plans to tinker with the proposed legislation before sending it back to the House for another vote.

Sen. Bill Branton

The reform bill is similar to one that passed earlier this session for Charleston County, which was itself modeled on a system that has been in place in Berkeley County for several years.

Sen. Bill Branton, R-Summerville, said the current version of the bill has already been approved by the House and will likely get two amendments. One would let the combined board choose its own chairman. The bill now stipulates that the legislative delegation chooses the board chairman. The second would allow the Senate to choose four of the board's seven members while the House would choose three.

"Hopefully we're going to get this sent back to the House and get it taken care of," said Branton, one of two local senators backing the amendments. Branton said senators plan to discuss the amendments today, but wasn't sure how long it would be before the amended bill would go back to the House.

The House version of the bill specifies that only a majority of the county's legislative delegation will appoint board members who would each serve four years. But Branton and Sen. Larry Grooms wanted the weighted-voting amendment to preserve some of the Senate's authority under the new system.

Annette Young, the Republican representative from Summerville who sponsored the bill, said she's not opposed to the weighted-votingamendment -- she just wants the bill passed into law.

"That's fine with me," Young said. "It's in (Branton's) lap, basically. It's been sitting over there (in the Senate) for a long time."

Rep. Annette Young

The Senate recently overrode Gov. Mark Sanford's veto of a similar bill for Charleston County that places the Election Commission and the Board of Voter Registration under the control of a single panel. Lawmakers believe such an arrangement will make the two offices more efficient, reduce bureaucracy and help avoid a repeat of the confusion, including allegations of voter fraud, that occurred at some polling places last November. Berkeley County combined its boards several years ago.

Sanford said he was not opposed to combining the boards, but vetoed the Charleston bill and four others because they violated either the state ban on special legislation or the provisions of the Home Rule Act. If Sanford continues to veto local bills on constitutional grounds, Dorchester's delegation would also have to prepare for an override vote.

Sen. Arthur Ravenel, R-Mount Pleasant and sponsor of the Charleston bill, said the legislative delegation might discuss appointments to Charleston's nine-member board next week.

Dorchester County's current system involves a five-member Board of Voter Registration that handles all voter registration and a five-member Election Commission that runs the elections.

Young said the Dorchester bill, expected to pass easily through the Legislature once it's reintroduced in the House, is meant to accomplish the same thing as the Charleston bill. She said consolidating the Election Commission and the Board of Voter Registration should improve efficiency in both offices, particularly the Board of Voter Registration.

"I don't see them out there registering voters, which is their basic job," she said. "It's perfect timing right now to combine the two."

Steve Reeves can be contacted at sreeves@postandcourier.com or (843) 745-5856.