SC Rep looking at bill to end DST

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A South Carolina representative is sponsoring a bill that could result in the end of daylight saving time in the state. Rep. Alan Clemmons from District 107 says the bill proposes putting a question on the November 2018 ballot that would ask voters whether they want to keep daylight saving time. Right now, the way the bill is worded, it asks whether voters either want to stay in standard time year round or keep doing things the way they’re done now. Eventually, Clemmons hopes the wording gets changed to allow more options. “There may be a smorgasbord of opportunities,” Clemmons said. “There may be an opportunity to say, ‘Yes, I want to do away with spring forward, fall back, and I’d like to go to standard time,’ or ‘I’d like to go to constant daylight saving time.’” Clemmons says the reason he prefiled the bill was because the people he represents have asked for it for a long time. "When the time changes, people call me, they send me emails, they send me letters and they talk to me on the street, telling me how disruptive the time change is, how it doesn't accomplish anything other than mess up sleep patterns and how there should be a bill filed," he said. Arizona and Hawaii are the only other states that don’t follow daylight saving time. Clemmons says if South Carolina were to ditch daylight saving time, the people who live there would have to adjust just like the people in Arizona. “In Arizona, the only state in the continental United States that’s done away with daylight saving time so far, they have on one border mountain time, on the other border they have pacific time,” he said. “Around that state, they’ve got three different time zones, so they plan accordingly.” Clemmons also says other states are looking into this as well. “I’ve had legislators from North Carolina call me, legislators from Georgia and many other states that have seen this bill and are looking to replicate the bill in their states,” Clemmons said.