Computer glitch could prevent 1,900 young people from voting in South Carolina

Colombia, South Carolina – A civil rights organization is asking the state Department of Motor Vehicles to reopen voter registration for nearly 1,900 teenagers in South Carolina after they failed to notify election officials that they had checked the box to register when they received their driver’s licenses.

The teens were 17 when they went to the DMV, but would be 18 by Election Day. A glitch in the DMV’s computers did not detect that the teens were qualified and did not provide them with an additional electronic form certifying that they were citizens, not criminals, and had the right to vote.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Tuesday, a day after early voting began in South Carolina. They offered several possible ways young people could be registered and allowed to vote, and Judge Daniel Coble promised a ruling after hearing arguments Friday.

“This is a case about a fundamental constitutional right,” said ACLU attorney Allen Chaney. “First-time voters will be unfairly excluded from a historic election.”

But attorneys for the South Carolina Election Commission, SCDMV, the General Assembly and the Governor’s Office argued that it was too late to fix registration problems at county election offices, while sympathizing with young people who might miss their first chance to vote for president. busy doing early voting.

Potential voters need to be identified, their eligibility checked and added to voter lists. “None of this can happen before this general election,” said Michael Burchstead, an attorney for the State Election Commission.

Approximately 6,000 more young people affected by the glitch, including the 17-year-old who uncovered the problem and notified his mother, were able to register after the check, only to find that the process had not been completed and they were not listed on the register. Let a Democratic lawmaker start the trial on what’s going on now.

State attorneys said some burden needs to be placed on young people to ensure they can vote before the registration deadline earlier this month.

Since they are first-time voters, they may not realize that clicking the box that says “yes, I want to register” means they won’t register, the ACLU said.

“They didn’t register successfully and they won’t find out until Election Day,” Chaney said.

Judge Coble said he understood the time crunch and would rule as soon as possible. More than 511,000 ballots were cast in the first four days of early voting in South Carolina; That works out to about 15% of all eligible voters.

Coble decided earlier this month to extend the registration deadline by about a week due to widespread damage and power outages caused by Hurricane Helene. He noted from the pulpit Friday that this was “not an act of man, but an act of God.”

The DMV worked with the ACLU to determine the scope of the problem. They had to individually review each application that met the rules to see if young people checked the box to register to vote.

And the state’s attorneys all said they’re going to work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We share with the ACLU the goal of free, fair, safe and secure elections,” said Kevin Hall, attorney for South Carolina Senate President Thomas Alexander.