The meetings theme was – “The Importance of Voting.” The meeting was opened with Lancaster County Councilman Jose Luis remembering Corey Comperator, whose life was tragically cut short at the attempted assassination of President Trump, as well as those injured.

Primary turnout was less than 10% of registered voters in Lancaster County, just under 14% for the state.
To find out who & what will be on your ballot in November go to scvotes.gov

The meeting was opened with a prayer and the pledge of allegiance with a special note about National Police Week (May 11 – 17) and remembering those in Law Enforcement as well as all First Responders for their service and sacrifices.

After opening the meeting with a prayer and Pledge, the meeting had no guest speaker.  Instead, we had a panel of members who volunteered to present the candidates for President. The original panel had six or seven volunteers who were tasked with speaking about a candidate and they would list “achievements,” pro or con without naming the candidate.

We began our January meeting with a quick overview of our activities in December of 2023 “A Star-Spangled Christmas“ – About 40 of us (10% of the audience) attended the Lancaster County EMS performance. Everyone had a good time and if you would like to write a letter to EMS and let them know, they would appreciate it.

Although we didn’t have a December meeting, it was a busy month for the ILR. Year End is special chance every year to reflect back as well as look forward to the future.

This meeting had updates on various topics, which were then followed by a discussion by Lancaster County Councilman Jose Luis on items concerning Lancaster County projects, commissions and other matters.

This month’s meeting was held at the Del Webb Library in Indian Land. A number of items were discussed, including looking for volunteers for two upcoming events mentioned at end of Newsletter.

This month’s meeting was held at the Del Webb Library

The meeting began with a recap of the topics members wished to address at the beginning of the year and what has been accomplished so far. 

Congressman Ralph Norman ( https://norman.house.gov ) Congressman Norman, just back from Washington D.C., was our featured guest and he provided us with reminders and updates on various topics.

After opening with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer, we conducted an overview of recent elections illustrating the importance of primary elections. For the 2022 South Carolina elections approximately 17.6% of eligible voters voted in the primary, which is the election that decides who represents the parties in the general election. Of the registered voters the turnout was 20%. The general election had 44% of eligible voters showing up at the polls, which mean a small number of voters decided who are the final candidates and still less than 50% registered voters cast a vote. The SC primary for the 2024 presidential elections are in February 2024 and we are hoping to get more voters engaged, informed and voting.

South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis was our speaker at the May meeting.