From Staff Reports 

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Two referenda were on the ballot on Nov. 5 — and the one proposing a statewide constitutional amendment on voting passed easily with 86 percent support.

The vote in support of the citiznship referendum was 1,982,229, or 86 percent, versus 324,024, or 14 percent, opposed.

Meanwhile, a proposal — only for Greenville and Anderson counties — to impose a penny sales tax to raise funds  to fix local roads, intersections and bridges failed to pass by a margin of 3 percent.

In Greenville County, 126,293 voters, or 51.5 percent, voted against Transportation Sales Tax Question 1, while 118,948 voters, or 48.5 percent, voted for it.

In Anderson County, 49,059 voters, or 53.21 percent, opposed the Transportation Sales Tax Question 1, while 43,137 voters, or 46.79 percent, voted for it.

The vote against Transportation Sales Tax Question 1 rendered the vote on Question 2 moot, as Question 2 would require that the money raised from the sales tax be spent strictly on the transportation infrastructure improvements.

Regarding the referendum on Section 4 of Article II of the state Constitution, voters were asked: “Must Section 4, Article II of the Constitution of this State, relating to voter qualifications, be amended so as to provide that only a citizen of the United States and of this State of the age of eighteen and upwards who is properly registered is entitled to vote as provided by law?”

The current language says: “Every citizen of the United States and of this State of the age of 18 and upwards who is properly registered is entitled to vote as provided by law.”

What’s more, the Greenville News pointed out in a Nov. 6 story that “South Carolina is not the only state with the measure on the ballot, as eight states, including North Carolina, asked residents questions with the same wording.”