South Carolina dodged a bullet for midterm elections, officials say

The long-simmering fight over voting in this fall’s midterm elections came to a rolling boil this week when the U.S. Supreme Court effectively killed President Trump’s plan to give the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) unprecedented control over mail-in ballots in all 50 states.

Trump condemned the decision in a Tuesday social media post, saying “the Supreme Court has really let our country down.”

“It is a big loss for Republicans, and America itself, and makes cheating by the radical left ‘Dumocrats’ on mail-in ballots a much easier thing to do,” Trump wrote. “And now they have an open field to do so!”

But according to voting advocates, the ruling prevented a last-minute breakdown in the absentee voting process here in the Palmetto State and around the country.

“We dodged a huge bullet,” said S.C. League of Women Voters Vice President Lynn Teague, whose national organization was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “It was mechanically impossible to put in place reliably. All it would have done is create chaos.”

Among the concerns about Trump’s plan: the short window of time that states had to get vote-by-mail envelopes approved by the USPS, and the requirement that election officials upload information about all voters receiving absentee ballots to a federal website that’s still under construction.

“All the evidence, including from a Postal Service whistleblower, is that it would have been a catastrophe,” Teague said.

Wide-scale cheating claims ‘unfounded’ in S.C.

Despite Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread “cheating,” there’s significant evidence that South Carolina elections are clean and well run, starting with a top-to-bottom 2024 review by the state Legislative Audit Council.

The bottom line?

“We did not find a material problem with ineligible individuals voting,” the report stated, while noting that a handful of individual cases existed. “We also found no incidences where non-U.S. citizens with state IDs or driver’s licenses had voted.”

Nevertheless, when former Rep. Adam Morgan, R-Greenville, then chairman of the S.C. Freedom Caucus, suggested that state election officials were registering illegal voters, Gov. Henry McMaster directed the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate.

And once again, the review produced a clean bill of health for the state’s election system.

“The report confirms the integrity of South Carolina’s voter registration system,” McMaster said of the report, which found the allegation to be unfounded. “Agencies are properly complying with state and federal voter registration laws, and no evidence of unlawful activity was found.”

‘Safe and secure’

Charleston Democratic Sen. Ed Sutton told the Charleston City Paper he has “confidence” in S.C. elections, despite the normal errors that would be expected of any system with millions of interactions.

“I feel from all the conversations I’ve had that the professionals are still in charge, both here in Charleston and at the state level,” Sutton said.

Still, Sutton said, he’s concerned that further Trump administration actions, such as demands for state-level voter data and the use of federal “monitors” in some areas, could suppress turnout this fall by intimidating, or just plain confusing, many voters.

“There are people at the federal level who’ve made the calculation that the less people who vote in this election, the better it is for Donald Trump,” Sutton said. “So you’ve got to show up, vote, and make your voice heard.”

ACLU of S.C. spokesman Paul Bowers described similar concerns, but also seemed to share Sutton’s larger view of the state’s election process.

“We can’t predict the future, but we can say that by and large, our elections here have been safe and secure,” Bowers said. “For all our problems, our elections are well run.”

But, he said, if voters do have problems on election day, they should call the election protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683).

“The problems we hear about most often are not at the level of national conspiracies,” he said. “They’re local issues and they can be serious, but they can usually be resolved.”

‘Multiple levels of security in place’

With the vote-by-mail question now settled, election officials stressed the security of S.C.’s existing absentee voting system.

“I want to make sure voters know they can trust the election process here in South Carolina and in Charleston,” said Isaac Cramer, executive director of the Charleston County Board of Elections. “There are multiple levels of security in place. And we have a great relationship with USPS locally to help troubleshoot any issues we ever encounter.”

In addition, he noted, voters can track their absentee ballot requests throughout the process on the commission’s website.

Asked what voters need to know heading into election season, Cramer offered three items.
First, he said, if you’re not signed up to vote, the deadline to register in this November’s election is Oct. 2 in person and Oct. 4 online. And if you’re already registered, it’s always a good idea to check your information at SCVotes.com to make sure it’s accurate and up-to-date.

Second, if you have any questions about the process, contact the commission directly or visit the commission website. “Don’t go to Facebook,” Cramer said.

And finally, if you still have concerns about the process, he offered a simple suggestion.
“Elections are at a point now where people have questions, and I really would ask that people consider being a poll worker,” Cramer said. “That’s the best way to see the safeguards that are in place.”

He added, “We’re always recruiting poll workers for our elections, and we’d love for people to be a part of that process.”