With the COVID-19 cloud still hovering over SC, holding a June primary makes no sense

COVID-19 has put so many of the things we treasure at great risk.

We can’t allow democracy to be among them.

That’s why Gov. Henry McMaster and the state Legislature must each show the moral and political courage necessary to safeguard voting in South Carolina during a health catastrophe that will loom over us for weeks and months to come.

McMaster should use his executive power to postpone South Carolina’s scheduled June 9 primary.

And state lawmakers should use their legislative power to put a statewide mail-in voting program in place in time for the Nov. 6 general election.

Both steps must be taken to ensure South Carolinians remain safe — and to ensure their ability to vote freely remains intact in the age of COVID-19.

Postpone primary

The sobering sight of voters in Wisconsin being forced to stand in long lines to cast ballots during their state’s recent primary — in the midst of a respiratory-related pandemic that can only be eased by preventing large groups of individuals from gathering together — should provide whatever evidence is needed to affirm what should be obvious:

South Carolina should not be holding an election in early June.

No, we don’t know how COVID-19 will be impacting our state some 60 days from now.

But given the mounting number of positive tests and deaths still occurring statewide, we can already assume this much: June will be too soon to have large numbers of South Carolinians gathering in confined voting sites.

U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham of Charleston — who is only now emerging from self-quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 — summed it up well when he declared that South Carolinians shouldn’t be asked to potentially risk their lives to cast their votes.

The governor should spare us from facing that dilemma.

McMaster should order the June 9 primary to be postponed, and he should begin consulting with state election officials to reschedule it sometime later in the summer.

Mail-in voting

In reality state lawmakers should have been laying the groundwork for South Carolina to have a mail-in voting system long before a pandemic took place. But now that this dark moment has arrived, they should finally take that enlightened step.

It’s not a revolutionary idea.

Colorado, Washington and Oregon, for example, all hold elections by mail-in voting — and all of them have been able to handle and tabulate millions of ballots with few complications or controversies.

Nor would it be some impossible Herculean task to activate a mail-in vote for South Carolinians by the November election.

Our state lawmakers need to make that happen.

Period.

At a time when the cloud of coronavirus continues to ominously hover over South Carolina and South Carolinians, we need to remain focused on the grim business of getting ourselves through these deadly, unprecedented times.

That’s why our state has no business holding a primary election in June — nor any business holding up a move toward a mail-in voting system.

This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 10:15 AM.