Voters’ personal info requested by Justice Department. Did SC officials send it?
The U.S. Department of Justice asked South Carolina to hand over its voters’ personal data, including partial Social Security numbers, this summer.
The South Carolina Election Commission is still debating whether to send the requested full names, dates of births, home addresses and the last four digits of Social Security numbers or state drivers’ license numbers. The Justice Department extended the commission’s deadline for compliance twice.
Without another extension, the election commission will decide by the end of next week whether to send voter registration lists. There are over 3.3 million registered voters in South Carolina, so the personal information of roughly 60% of state residents may be sent to the justice department. Other states have also been asked to hand over their voter rolls this summer.
The request was made by the Civil Rights division to enforce federal voting laws, according to an email from the Office of the U.S. Assistant Attorney General.
The request has raised privacy concerns. South Carolina Democratic Party posted a statement on X opposing the request. Christale Spain, the South Carolina Democratic Party chair, called the request an “unacceptable, unprovoked invasion of privacy” in the statement. She also asked Gov. Henry McMaster and Attorney General Alan Wilson to reject the request.
Spokespersons for both McMaster and Wilson said the offices do not object to the election commission sending voter rolls to the Trump administration.
“South Carolina’s voter rolls are public records, which are well maintained and have been made available to the public in various formats for decades,” said McMaster spokesperson Brandon Charochak in an email to The State. He added that the federal government already has access to Social Security numbers.
The election commission wants to determine whether sending the information violates state and federal privacy laws, according to an Aug. 20 email to the Justice Department from Howard Knapp, the South Carolina Election Commission executive director. The commission is allowed to sell voter data to South Carolina voters, but the publicly available information does not include Social Security or state drivers’ license numbers.
The state election commission “is committed to complying with all legal requirements while ensuring the privacy and security of voter information,” commission spokesman John Catalano wrote in an email to The State. He also shared emailed correspondences from the Justice Department regarding the voter rolls.
The Justice Department had pushed back on the election commission’s request for more time. The Justice Department initially asked for the voter rolls in early July, before making a formal request on Aug. 6. The election commission was given 14 days to comply.
Knapp asked the Justice Department for a 60-day extension to review state and federal privacy laws a day before the deadline. In an Aug. 20 emailed response, Michael E. Gates, the deputy assistant attorney general, told the commission’s general counsel the legality of the request was “unambiguous.” Still, he granted the commission a week extension, until Aug. 28.
“The electronic form of South Carolina’s Voter Registration List already exists and can be easily transmitted to the Justice Department by following the instructions in our letter,” Gates said in the email. “The legal authorities presented by the Justice Department’s for the transmittal of the VRL are clear and unambiguous.”
On Tuesday, Gates gave the ethics commission another extension with a Sept. 5 deadline.
This story was originally published August 29, 2025 at 1:17 PM.