SC legislature has votes to remove Confederate flag, survey finds

South Carolina’s Legislature has enough votes to remove the Confederate flag from state grounds following the public outcry after a mass shooting at a historic black church in the state nearly two weeks ago.

A two-thirds majority exists in the state House and Senate to remove the flag, according to a survey of legislators released Monday evening by The Post and Courier. 

State lawmakers are slated to return July 6 and expected to debate the issue, according to the report.

{mosads}South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) and state lawmakers from both parties last week called for the flag to removed from the Statehouse grounds amid pressure from critics who consider the flag to be racist.

“We are not going to allow this symbol to divide us any longer,” she said last week. “The fact that it causes pain to so many is enough to move it from the Capitol grounds.”

Calls for the flag to be retired intensified after the June 17 shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., that left nine people dead. The suspect in the shooting, Dylann Storm Roof, a 21-year old white man, had posed for photographs with the flag well before the shooting.

A deal in 2000 saw officials move the Confederate battle flag from atop the Statehouse to a nearby Confederate memorial within eyesight of the Capitol.

But officials have faced pressure in recent days to remove it entirely. Over the weekend, two people were arrested for climbing the flag pole near the statehouse and taking down the flag.