Charleston party officials granted early access to absentee rolls due to ballot error
The Charleston County Democratic Party has been granted access to a list of county voters whose absentee ballots “have an alleged deficiency or irregularity,” information not typically available publicly until the day before an election.
The party, which filed suit earlier this week seeking immediate access to the county election board’s absentee voter list after learning that more than 1,300 Charleston County voters had been mailed the wrong ballots, is entitled to a list of the affected voters, a circuit court judge ruled Thursday.
The list, which contains the names, home addresses and absentee mailing addresses of voters who requested absentee ballots, is not normally released until 9 a.m. on the day before an election, but Democratic officials sought to access it early as they attempt to identify and contact voters who were mailed incorrect ballots and notify them of the error.
Upon granting the request Thursday, Judge R. Markley Dennis Jr. ordered Charleston elections officials to turn over the files within 24 hours, writing that withholding the documents served no lawful purpose and that sharing them would serve to maximize absentee voting opportunities and prevent disenfranchisement.
“Releasing the information immediately and on a reasonable continuing basis up until Election Day will serve the important purpose of ensuring a fair election and mitigating the need for post-election challenges which may result in invalidating an election,” the judge wrote.
Charleston County elections officials acknowledged their error in a press release last week and say they have already mailed corrected ballots to the affected voters, but the Charleston County Democratic Party had argued in court filings that those efforts to rectify the mistake were insufficient and the elections board needed to do more.
In its lawsuit filed Monday, Charleston Democrats said they knew of voters who had received the elections board’s letter regarding the ballot mailing error, but remained confused about its meaning or how to correct their votes, and asserted the best remedy was through “one-to-one voter contact to ensure voters are aware of the issue and any individual voter’s questions on how to properly cure are specifically addressed.”
Party officials argued that providing them access to the absentee voter list was necessary to fix the problem and to identify any other problems not currently known so that those could be resolved as soon as possible.
Joe Debney, director of the Charleston County Board of Elections and Voter Registration, said he had no problem turning over the voter list early, but could not do so on his own volition because it is prohibited by law. He said Friday morning that he was prepared to provide lists to both the Charleston Democratic and Republican parties once he received confirmation from the court.
The Charleston Republicans chose not to join the Democrats in their suit, but the court order grants them — and any other interested person or organization — access to the documents as well, and Charleston GOP chairman Maurice Washington said he planned to use the list to check with impacted voters and make sure they had received corrected ballots.
Charleston Democratic chairwoman Colleen Condon said having the list would allow party officials to confirm that voters who call asking about the legitimacy of the corrected ballots they receive are, in fact, among those affected by the ballot error.
“We can also literally go knock on their door, send them a letter, phone them,” she said. “Being able to follow up, it increases the chances that each vote irregularity is resolved.”
The ballot mix-up, which resulted in 1,324 voters in three voting districts being mailed incorrect ballots and another 225 people who voted absentee in-person being served the wrong ballots, was the result of a transposition error in the voting system that generated the wrong ballot styles, Debney said.
The error came to light after a former Charleston County Council candidate noticed her ballot did not include the contest she ran for in the primary and contacted the county’s Republican Party chairman, who alerted Debney.
The errors affected only county council races in Districts 6 and 7.
An undisclosed number of voters in the District 4 race also received the wrong ballots, Debney said, but unlike the District 6 and 7 races, the District 4 race is uncontested.
In some cases, voters received ballots without one of the races they should have been able to vote in, while in others they were given the opportunity to vote for candidates outside of their district.
Voters who were not displayed races that should have appeared on their ballots may now vote in those races by mailing in their corrected ballots or casting provisional ballots in person.
A small number of in-person votes cast in county council races that improperly appeared on voters’ ballots will be counted because state law prohibits any changes being made to those ballots, elections officials said.
In the off chance that a race is so close that any miscast votes might have an impact on the outcome, the affected candidate or party can challenge the results and a new election may need to be held.
This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 12:20 PM with the headline "Charleston party officials granted early access to absentee rolls due to ballot error."