BIG STORY: Surge in absentee ballot requests, agency says

By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent  | South Carolina state law mandates voters must have one of a limited list of excuses to vote early or vote by mail. Avoiding a pandemic is not on the list.

Still, the state’s election agency has reported “a significant increase” in absentee voting requests.So far, 35,666 absentee applications have been requested for the June 9 primaries. To put that number in perspective, 60,595 absentee ballots were issued in the June primary in 2016, and a majority of those ballots were for in-person absentee voters, Whitmire said. 

“This is a significant increase,” S.C. State Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said, who added absentee applications would be processed through the mail since voting absentee in-person won’t start until May 11, these will be processed through the mail.

In the 2016 general election, counties processed more than 500,000 absentee ballots. Whitmire said it “surpassed” what many counties could handle on absentee ballots.

“Our absentee process is not built for high volume. It’s really intended for a small subset of people,” he said. 

One of the biggest concerns is a backup in counting ballots, especially for the general election, with results not available for a day or more after voting, Whitmire said. By law, absentee ballots cannot begin being counted until 9 a.m. on Election Day.

A Senate-passed bill, S. 867, sought to allow counting beginning the day before but, since Feb. 25, it has remained in the House Judiciary Committee and will likely die there as the session is all but ended.

Voters try to cite pandemic

Some voters in Charleston County have tried to cite the pandemic as a reason for their ballot request, according to County Election Project Manager Isaac Cramer, but since that’s not a listed reason, his office points to the list of excuses allowed. Reasons include being over the age of 65, having a disability and needing to work the day of election.

“Usually some people can fit in one of these categories but some of these people have lost their jobs so working is not an excuse,” Cramer said, adding that he encourages all people over the age of 65 to request absentee-by-mail ballots.

To vote by mail in South Carolina under existing rules, voters call their county voter office, request an absentee ballot, and then must receive and send back an application to obtain that ballot, Cramer said. If a voter qualifies, he or she can request absentee ballots for all elections later in the year.

The pandemic appears to be impacting poll workers, too. 

League of Women Voters of South Carolina Vice President Lynn Teague said there are growing concerns for poll workers, who tend to be elderly and “firmly within the danger zone” for contracting a deadly form of COVID-19.

“Are they going to sign up for $100 to sit there for 12 hours while everybody from the neighborhood comes in and shares germs with them?” Teague said.

Whitmire said counties are reporting hearing “it’s not worth my life” from poll workers, and hearing from facilities balking at their use during the pandemic, which could result in polling locations being moved or consolidated. 

A question of authority

In the last few weeks, the state Election Commission, a few Democratic lawmakers, and the S.C. Association of Registration and Election Officials asked Gov. Henry McMaster to consider earlier voting and no-excuse absentee voting, and to begin counting votes earlier for the June primaries and November general election to help voters and poll workers avoid coming in contact with coronavirus. 

“The main issue is that our elections, as currently prescribed by law, require large numbers of people to congregate in one place — something that everyone is currently being asked not to do by public safety and health officials,” Elections Commission Executive Director Marci Andino wrote McMaster and top legislators March 30. 

At the Statehouse, three Democratic lawmakers also sent a letter to McMaster in late March to ask for an extension of absentee voting, and allowing for no excuses.

“Unfortunately, there’s not a bipartisan effort on this,” Columbia Democratic Rep. Beth Bernstein said. The letter was also signed by Sumter Democratic Sen. Thomas McElveen and Charleston Democratic Rep. Leon Stavrinakis. “We need to be prepared for June at a minimum … We can’t just sit here and not do anything.”

Whether McMaster has the authority to expand absentee voting options in the state may need to be decided by lawyers, some say. McMaster’s office has not responded to a request for comment for this story. The only authority on elections McMaster has exercised, so far, has been postponing elections in March and April to a future date, according to Whitmire. 

Other states are trying to navigate the unknown waters, too, as state legislatures typically have the authority to alter elections, not governors, and the legislatures are not convening during the pandemic. 

Funding held up

The state legislature included $15 million to be used at the governor’s discretion to help voters and poll workers stay safe at the polls — but that money has been held up after a squabble between the House and the Senate. 

“(The funding) will go a long way toward helping us conduct elections amidst the coronavirus pandemic. However, we still have the question of whether we can conduct elections any different than what is prescribed by law,” Whitmire said. “We’re looking at things we can do under our current structure, which is doing things to protect poll managers and voters (using masks, sanitizing wipes, styluses for the screen).”

Whitmire said he does not have an estimated cost on such equipment, and that the agency is in the process of ordering it. 

“What we really need to know is what do we have authority to do?” Whitmire said, adding that the agency has reached out to the governor’s office. “We still view the delay of the primaries as a possibility … but we are still moving forward.”

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