A variety of concerns were raised at the meeting, including the failure of the City of Lexington to sign on to the Comet public transportation agreement, so that public transportation to the proposed single early voting site is not available. Even many of those with personal vehicles will face long distances and very congested roads into the town of Lexington.
The problem arises in this case not from ideology but from finances. Lexington County Elections has indicated that it costs $8000/early voting site and proposed dividing the cost of the county office plus three added sites equally among the 13 municipalities, for a cost of $600/site/municipality. Some municipalities have refused, and do not seem inclined to change their minds.
During the meeting, a proportional allocation of cost was suggested. Some cities are much larger than others and would bear far more of the cost. The response from the county was that if the municipalities can agree on a formula by this Friday another meeting will be held to discuss adding early voting locations. There is apparently no expectation that this will occur.
Underlying this is the structure of municipal elections in SC. Counties can refuse to take on responsibility for municipal elections and leave them to hold elections themselves. Fortunately, so far that does not seem to be under consideration in Lexington.
The SC Code requires that “the authority charged by law with conducting an election” must provide early voting. When the counties take on that responsibility for municipalities, it would then follow that counties must provide early voting for “all elections.” (SC Code §7-13-25 Early Voting). Lexington County does not seem to be disputing that. The statute further provides that:
(G)(1) Each county board of voter registration and elections must determine locations for its early voting centers. In selecting locations for early voting centers, the county board of voter registration and elections must consider geography, population, and ADA compliant accessibility. The county board of voter registration and elections must distribute the locations throughout the county to maximize accessibility for all voters in the county to the greatest extent possible.
The current Lexington County plans do not conform to this requirement. A single site is not distributed for accessibility. However, it does not seem likely that further advocacy short of a threat of litigation will be effective in changing the immediate situation.
We should also bear in mind that this situation is very likely to have implications for consideration of H.3734 (improving and standardizing municipal election administration) in the Senate in 2024 and may lead to additional legislative proposals that would enable municipalities and counties to limit early voting locations.
