Gov. Mark Sanford should think twice before vetoing a seat belt bill that has passed the South Carolina Senate.

The governor said that he thinks the law is not strong enough and he does not support it in its present form. Complaining about the small amount of a fine for not wearing a seat belt under the proposed legislation ($12) and that information about a person not wearing a seat belt might not be made available to juries if cases went to court, Sanford said he cannot support the bill.

Last year the state Senate was stymied by a filibuster that kept the matter from coming up for a vote. This year, with a change of Senate rules, the bill was quickly put before legislators and passed. Passage of that or a similar bill in the House is awaited.

The effectiveness of seat belts in saving lives has been demonstrated over the last four decades. We would hope that the governor is bluffing in hopes of getting a stronger bill. It would be a tragedy if he were to veto a bill that could save the lives of South Carolinians. Something has to be done to keep people safer on our highways, and this bill would do just that.

Aiken Standard

Glaring absence

of black judges

The method in which South Carolina elects its judges has once again proven incapable of seating an African-American on the bench. The Legislature must find a way to reform the election process that recently rejected two qualified black candidates. The results guaranteed South Carolina’s judicial branch of government will remain among the whitest in the nation. Just eight of the 134 judges the Legislature elects are African-American.

The Legislature determined that Shirley Robinson and Gwendlyne Smalls, both black attorneys, were qualified. Yet both lost by wide margins. Black lawmakers argue that it comes down to an unwillingness among white lawmakers to vote for black candidates over white ones.

That’s why some are calling for the popular election of judges and threatening a federal lawsuit. But South Carolina’s process for seating judges is sound overall. It is the best guarantee yet that judges are well-qualified, so the process should not be scrapped.

But clearly the state must invest in strategies to increase the number of black candidates, thereby increasing the likelihood more will be seated as judges. Doing nothing guarantees black judges will continue to be selected in limited number.

One black lawmaker estimated that at this pace it will take 100 years for the proportion of African-American judges to gain parity with the makeup of South Carolina. That’s not too far-fetched. And the status quo is obviously not good enough.

The Greenville News