While elections across the United States in various states and cities have been scrutinized for problems with padding votes, improper use of absentee ballots, or even stealing of ballots—especially following the 2020 Presidential Election—one citizen in South Carolina is working to see that we never have to question our state’s results in elections.
That citizen is Laura Scharr and the organization for which she speaks as team leader is called “South Carolina Safe Elections.” The primary goal of the group is to ensure that elections in the state are held to high standards and that information from elections is made available and open to the public. Scharr believes that openness in elections is a vital and necessary right for all citizens and essential to the democratic process.
“Our South Carolina state constitution has a clear mandate about the rights of voters in our state with respect to having ‘open’ information about elections,” Scharr stated. “We have that right as citizens here.”
Scharr quotes the South Carolina Constitution to back up her words. “It states clearly in SC Constitution Article II Section 1: All elections by the people shall be by secret ballot, but the ballots shall not be counted in secret,” she said. “Not all state constitutions make this so clear—but South Carolina’s does make it clear.”
Scharr and South Carolina Safe Elections have taken it upon themselves to request election information from the state from the last election. They requested a special report called the “Cast Vote Record” which shows general voting information by vote cast—as the ballot is placed in the tabulator machine. This information will show who received the votes in an order that can be analyzed further. Vote order is not exact in this record, but it is in relative order (due to the shuffling in batches of 200 to ensure anonymity); however, ALL voting data minus identification is extracted by individual vote.
“The point is that it will tell us exactly how the votes were recorded by the machines, by each vote,” said Scharr. “That will give us the real data from the election and give us an open election as the constitution mandates.”
The SC Safe Election organization’s request for the “Cast Vote Record” from the Elections Board, however, was denied, setting into motion a new scenario—a lawsuit filed by the organization under the Freedom of Information Act.
“The Elections Board was on the edge of throwing out ballots on September 3, 2022, when our organization approached the courts and asked for an injunction,” said Scharr. “The statute gave the board 22 months from the date of the election before tossing out the ballots. We filed a notion by September 1st and the court granted the injunction requested and saved the ballots. Now we need them to provide the ‘Cast Vote Record’.”
As the Elections Board has refused to give this “Cast Vote Record” to the SC Safe Elections organization, a lawsuit has moved forward, making its way through earliest action, and parties will soon be facing off in court.
The SC Safe Elections group is suing not only the South Carolina Elections Board but also eight specific counties: Aiken, Beaufort, Charleston, Dorchester, Greenville, Lexington, Spartanburg, and York.
Scharr states that the Elections Board’s statement that allowing their organization to have access to the “Cast Vote Records” will violate voter confidentiality is simply not true.
“The information that will be supplied does not specify identities of voters in any way—no names, addresses, or any other identification that would invade their privacy,” said Scharr. “It is a record of legal voting data, but without any vote identification. If it contained voter ID’s, that would violate the state constitution regarding voter privacy. This record is the perfect record of voting that meets the ‘open elections’ requirement without violating voter privacy.” Scharr added: “This information that we are requesting through the Freedom of Information Act is now available in 28 states and the District of Columbia, so why can’t the voters of South Carolina have access to it? That’s our question.”
The SC Safe Elections group urges interested voters to become involved in the process to help ensure open and clean elections in the state. Ways to be involved include: contacting Governor McMaster and urging him to press the Attorney General’s office to release information requested on the “Cast Vote Records”; becoming a Poll Watcher (go to www.scsafeelections.org to get further information on volunteering); and contributing funds to help support the organization’s legal battles that are on-going and costly.
Any citizen who wishes to help support this legal effort to make SC elections more “open” through reporting can make donations by contacting https://givesendgo.com/SCOFIA.
Lisa C. Rudisill, M.T.S.
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