TransparencyGap.org
South Carolina · comparative governance audit

Does the public record match the public claim?

A civic research operation for South Carolina. Audit, not advocacy; every figure sourced to a primary document.

Pragmatic, not progressive.Local, not ideological.Sourced, not opinionated.

Who can be watched

The first county-layer census: can a resident find the record of their county council’s meetings? Hover to preview; click a county to open the bodies within it.

The census
InternalCounty-layer census v1, compiled 2026-06-12 and evidence-URL-gated. Pending verification; shown here for review, not yet published.
Allendale County, Bright Bamberg County, Dim Clarendon County, Dim Fairfield County, Bright Hampton County, Dim Jasper County, Dim Orangeburg County, Dim Saluda County, Dim Darlington County, Bright Dorchester County, Bright Edgefield County, Dark (no capacity found) Kershaw County, Bright Lee County, Dark (no capacity found) McCormick County, Dark (no capacity found) Newberry County, Dim Oconee County, Bright Richland County, Bright Spartanburg County, Dim Sumter County, Bright Williamsburg County, Dim Abbeville County, Dark (no capacity found) Aiken County, Dim Anderson County, Dim Calhoun County, Dim Chester County, Unknown Chesterfield County, Dim Cherokee County, Dark (by choice) Dillon County, Dark (no capacity found) Greenville County, Dim Greenwood County, Bright Horry County, Bright Laurens County, Dim Marlboro County, Bright Union County, Dark (no capacity found) Colleton County, Bright Florence County, Bright Georgetown County, Bright Barnwell County, Dark (by choice) Beaufort County, Bright Charleston County, Bright Lancaster County, Dim York County, Bright Lexington County, Bright Marion County, Bright Pickens County, Bright Berkeley County, Bright
County readout
South Carolina
Hover to preview a county; click it to open the bodies within. 46 county councils assessed.
Bright 21
Dim 16
Dark, by choice 2
Dark, no capacity found 6
Unknown 1

What the census found

01

Most of the county layer is already bright

Twenty-one of 46 county councils keep a durable, findable record of their meetings; only eight are dark at all. The darker map is at the town level.

02

Size does not decide brightness

Allendale, under 8,000 people, records to a durable archive; Cherokee, at 56,000, runs a full document platform and chooses not to. Investment is a decision, not a demographic.

03

Dim is a retention problem, not a recording one

The dim counties nearly all record; their archives are Facebook-only, login-walled, or quietly evaporating. The cheap statewide win is keeping the tape, not buying cameras.

04

Official self-descriptions cannot be trusted

One county's own video-archive page returns a 404; two counties' pages disagree with themselves on when they meet. The record has to be fetched, not asked for. That is why this census exists.

From census to audit

The census shows where the record can be found. An audit asks one sourced question of that record and answers it, yes or no.

See an example audit →