Student Voting Project | South Carolina

Voting at School

ID Requirements

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. If you can’t show ID, you can vote by provisional ballot, which will be counted if the canvassing board determines that you’re an eligible voter. The address that’s 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, any form of ID that will fulfill the general ID requirement will also fulfill the first-time voter ID requirement.

Registration Requirements

The deadline to register to vote is 30 days before Election Day. If you register in person, you will want to bring proof of your address.

Residency 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 to move back, even if you visit it occasionally—and you need to have a present intention to make your college town your home, even if you don't intend to stay there after graduation.

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've 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 might 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. Although they have discretion to decide what counts as proof and what doesn't, usually the following documents will work: a valid photo ID (including student ID) with your address, or a current utility bill, current bank statement, current government check, current paycheck, or a current government document with your address. Someone else can also challenge your residency in writing at the board of registration. The board will then hold a hearing and make a decision. 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.

Poll watchers, other voters, and poll workers can all challenge your residency at the polls. If your vote is challenged, you will have to vote by provisional ballot. 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, and if no one shows up to argue the challenge to your vote or provides evidence in some other way, or if the canvassing board decides that you are qualified, your vote will be counted.

Absentee Requirement

South Carolina voters may vote absentee if they have 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. Students who will be absent from their county of residence because they're attending school elsewhere are specifically granted the right to vote absentee in South Carolina. Applications to vote absentee must be returned to the county registration board by 5 p.m. on the fourth day before the election. The completed ballot must be received by your county by the close of polls on Election Day to be counted. Your ballot must be witnessed—that is, someone else will have to watch you vote and sign the envelope.

Voting at Home

ID Requirements

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. If you can’t show ID, you can vote by provisional ballot, which will be counted if the canvassing board determines that you’re an eligible voter. The address that’s 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, any form of ID that will fulfill the general ID requirement will also fulfill the first-time voter ID requirement.

Registration Requirements

The deadline to register to vote is 30 days before Election Day. If you register in person, you will want to bring proof of your address.

Residency 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 to move back, even if you visit it occasionally—and you need to have a present intention to make your college town your home, even if you don't intend to stay there after graduation.

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've 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 might 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. Although they have discretion to decide what counts as proof and what doesn't, usually the following documents will work: a valid photo ID (including student ID) with your address, or a current utility bill, current bank statement, current government check, current paycheck, or a current government document with your address. Someone else can also challenge your residency in writing at the board of registration. The board will then hold a hearing and make a decision. 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.

Poll watchers, other voters, and poll workers can all challenge your residency at the polls. If your vote is challenged, you will have to vote by provisional ballot. 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, and if no one shows up to argue the challenge to your vote or provides evidence in some other way, or if the canvassing board decides that you are qualified, your vote will be counted.

Absentee Requirement

South Carolina voters may vote absentee if they have 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. Students who will be absent from their county of residence because they're attending school elsewhere are specifically granted the right to vote absentee in South Carolina. Applications to vote absentee must be returned to the county registration board by 5 p.m. on the fourth day before the election. The completed ballot must be received by your county by the close of polls on Election Day to be counted. Your ballot must be witnessed—that is, someone else will have to watch you vote and sign the envelope.

[1] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-1-25; 2001 S.C. AG LEXIS 202.

[2] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-5-230

[3] Interview with Chris Whitmire, Public Information Officer, South Carolina State Election Commission (July 31, 2008).

[4] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-5-230.

[5] Id.

[6] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-13-810.

[7] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-13-830.

[8] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-17-10.

[9] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-5-150.

[10] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-13-710.

[11] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-13-830.

[12] Interview with Gary Baum, Director of Public Information and Training, South Carolina State Election Commission (June 8, 2008).

[13] 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.

[14] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-15-320

[15] Id.

[16] S.C. Code Ann. § 7-15-330.