Student Voting Guide | South Carolina
Registration
http://www.scvotes.org/ (registration form available online.
The deadline to register to vote is 30 days before Election Day.[1] If you register by mail, your application must be postmarked by that date.[2] If you register in person, you will want to bring proof of your address. You may register to vote if you will be 18 by the next election.[3]
Residency
At School. Students attending school in South Carolina should be able to register and vote at their school address if they meet the following requirements. In South Carolina, to establish voting residency in your college town, you need to have abandoned your prior home—that is, moved away without any intention of moving back, even if you visit occasionally—and you need to have the intent to make your college town your home, even if you do not intend to stay there after graduation.[4]
At Home. Students who lived in South Carolina before moving elsewhere to attend school, and who wish to establish or keep their South Carolina voting residency (i.e., at their parents’ South Carolina address), should have no problem doing so unless they have already registered to vote in another state. Like all states, South Carolina allows students to keep their voting residency even if they move out of the district to attend school, and the only way you will lose this residency is by establishing residency in a new state. While registering to vote in another state is not automatically considered abandonment of your South Carolina residency, some judges or officials might view it as such.
Challenges to Residency. Voter registration boards (the county elections officials in South Carolina) have a lot of discretion and can ask you to prove your residency when you try to register.[5] Although they have discretion to decide what counts as proof of residency and what does not, the following documents will usually be accepted: a valid photo ID (including student ID) with your address; a current utility bill; a current bank statement; a current government check; a current paycheck; or a current government document with your address.[6] Aside from voter registration boards, anyone can challenge your registration in writing at the board of registration.[7] The board will then hold a hearing and make a decision.[8] If the board either denies your registration or says that a challenge to it is justified, you can appeal that decision to the Court of Common Pleas and then to the Supreme Court.[9]
Poll watchers, other voters, and poll workers can all challenge your eligibility to vote based on residency at the polls.[10] If your eligibility is challenged, you will have to vote by provisional ballot.[11] On the Thursday (if the election is a primary) or the Friday (if the election is general) following the election, the county canvassing board will meet,[12] and if no one shows up to argue the challenge to your eligibility or provides evidence in some other way, or if the canvassing board decides that you are qualified, your vote will be counted.
Identification
All voters have to show a valid South Carolina driver’s license or non-driver’s ID card issued by the DMV showing your current address, or a voter registration card.[13] If you can’t show ID, you can vote by provisional ballot, which will be counted if the canvassing board determines that you are an eligible voter.[14] The address that is shown on the ID has to be your physical address, not a school mailbox or PO Box.
Although South Carolina requires first-time voters who registered by mail to also submit ID before voting at the polls,[15] any form of ID that will fulfill the general ID requirement will also fulfill the first-time voter ID requirement.[16] Other forms of acceptable ID include valid photo ID (including student ID) or current utility bill, current bank statement, current government check, current paycheck, or a current government document.[17]
Absentee Voting
To vote absentee, South Carolina voters must provide a legitimate reason for not showing up to the polls on Election Day, such as illness, employment obligations outside your county, vacation, or living temporarily overseas.[18] South Carolina law specifically grants students who will be absent from their county of residence because they are attending school elsewhere the right to vote absentee in South Carolina.[19] Applications to vote absentee must be returned to the county registration board by 5 p.m. on the fourth day before the election.[20] The completed ballot must be received by your county by the close of polls on Election Day to be counted.[21] Your ballot must be witnessed—that is, someone else will have to sign an oath stating that they watched you vote and sign the envelope.[22]
Last Updated in April 2010
[1] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-5-150 (2009).
[2] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-5-155.
[3] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-5-120.
[4] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-1-25 (2009); 2001 S.C. AG LEXIS 202.
[5] See S.C. Code Ann. § 7-5-230.
[6] Interview with Chris Whitmire, Public Information Officer, South Carolina State Election Commission (July 31, 2008).
[7] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-5-230 (2009).
[8] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-5-230.
[9] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-5-230.
[10] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-13-810 (2009).
[11] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-13-830.
[12] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-17-10.
[13] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-13-710.
[14] See S.C. Code Ann. § 7-13-830.
[15] Interview with Gary Baum, Director of Public Information and Training, South Carolina State Election Commission (June 8, 2008).
[16] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-13-710 (2009)
[17] http://www.scvotes.org/files/VR_Blank_Form.pdf (last visited on May 5, 2010).
[18] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-15-320 (2009).
[19] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-15-320(1).
[20] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-15-330.
[21] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-15-230.
[22] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-15-220.
