SC House effort to expand early, no-excuse voting gets unanimous support
House Republicans rejected a push from within their own party Wednesday to close the state’s primary elections, and instead unanimously advanced a bipartisan proposal that would add two weeks of excuse-free early voting and allow local election offices to count ballots early.
Lawmakers passed the bill, sponsored by House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, in the wake of a record breaking number of absentee ballots cast in 2020. South Carolina offered no-excuse absentee voting because of the ongoing pandemic. As a result, more than a million residents took advantage.
What does the SC House elections bill do?
Under current law, South Carolina voters can only cast absentee ballots if they meet certain criteria, such as a disability or older than 65 years old.
The House bill would set a permanent, no-excuse necessary in-person voting period Monday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the two weeks ahead of general elections, primaries, primary runoffs, special and municipal elections.
Voters who look to vote absentee by mail, however, would still be required to have an excuse.
The bill also contains provisions that would allow election workers to begin tallying absentee ballots one day earlier than is currently allowed. Specifically, election workers would be allowed to look at outer envelopes of returned absentee ballots the Sunday before Election Day, and they would be allowed to begin counting ballots the Monday morning before.
Lawmakers voted Wednesday to add a provision to the bill that would let poll watchers to be present during that vote counting process.
The large volume of absentee ballots cast around the country during the 2020 presidential election caused a massive delay in the vote counting process, delivering results days after Election Day. The extra time to count ballots granted in the bill was a special request from South Carolina county election officials.
“This is extremely important if we want to have our results in a timely manner,” said state Rep. Brandon Newton, R-Lancaster, a co-sponsor of the bill.
House shuts down attempt to close primaries, OKs penalty hike
Lawmakers engaged in a heated debate over an amendment that would close primary elections.
That would mean only registered Democrats would be able to vote in a Democratic primary and only Republicans would vote in Republican primaries.
State Rep. RJ May, a Lexington Republican and the amendment’s sponsor, argued that people outside of a party shouldn’t be allowed to vote in that party’s primary. He said voters have crossed party lines to alter elections, such as when some Republicans urged voters in 2020 to nominate Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary because they believed he would be easier for then-President Donald Trump to defeat.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is simple,” May said. “Democrats should elect Democrats and Republicans should elect Republicans.”
State Rep. Russell Ott, D-Calhoun, countered that closing primaries in South Carolina would mean that some voters would be shut out of local races where only members of one party are running. In a State House election, if three Democrats were running for office and no Republicans were, that would mean the Democratic primary alone would decide the result of that race, Ott said.
“There goes my opportunity to choose who represents me in this chamber,” Ott said.
Lawmakers ultimately voted to defeat the amendment.
They did, however, vote to add a provision that would require counties to audit 5% of ballots cast during each general election to make sure tallies matched up with what voting machines recorded. The addition also would allow state election officials to perform more comprehensive election audits.
“We do want to verify the results so we do know what is coming out of our voting machines is what people voted on their paper ballots,” said Rep. Josiah Magnuson, R-Spartanburg, who filed the amendment.
And lawmakers voted to strengthen the penalties for committing voter fraud. Currently, fraudulent voter registration or voting is a misdemeanor in South Carolina, and under the amendment, it would become a felony.
“There’s no teeth in the law right now,” said Rep. Steven Long, R-Spartanburg, who filed the amendment.
House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, questioned why, in a state that has seen little to no voter fraud, an increased penalty would be required.
He said the misdemeanor penalty seemed to be enough of a deterrent to stop fraudulent voting.
