Opinion: Special to The Post & Courier

~Lynn S. Teague, VP for Issues & Action, League of Women Voters of South Carolinia

Confidence in our elections is essential to the functioning of our representative democracy. In recent years claims of widespread election fraud have undercut that confidence. These claims are at best misinformed, and as in medicine, bad diagnosis can lead to inappropriate treatment.

Several bills under consideration in the General Assembly would radically change our election system, among other things requiring that our voter registration rolls should be maintained by the 46 individual counties rather than the State Election Commission. These bills appear to respond to claims that the commission has done such a poor job that election fraud is rampant. Is this true, and if it is, would transfer to the counties solve real problems?

Ideally voter registration rolls should reflect the status of every voter accurately. However, perfection will never be achieved. We don’t call the State Election Commission or even our county election commission immediately to report a death in our families or our departure from the state. Information that would render a registration inactive is subject to inevitable delay as agencies transfer data. However, considerable evidence has been amassed over the years showing that the system works, and our elections can be trusted.

In 2012 there were allegations that thousands of dead people voted in the general election. Legislative hearings were held, and SLED was asked to investigate. The agency complied, and in 2013 it reported that it had found no evidence that anyone had purposely cast a ballot using the name of a dead person. Instead, it found simple clerical mistakes such as “John Doe Sr.” (deceased) having been recorded as voting when in fact the voter was “John Doe Jr.” (very much alive and eligible to vote).

More recently, legislators requested a review of the South Carolina election process by the Legislative Audit Council. Following a multi-year study, that report was released this month: It states that on March 1, 2023, the State Election Commission listed 3.7 million active registered voters. Of those, 1,502 were deceased -- but only three ballots were cast in 2022-23 under the name of a dead voter. Experience tells us that even those three cases are more likely clerical error than voter fraud.

The LAC report did uncover some illegal voting. From 2000 through 2023, there were a total of 1,189 cases of people under parole and probation voting illegally. This is not a high annual rate but can and should be addressed through better inter-agency communication and through education of those convicted of crimes.

Would transfer of roll maintenance responsibility to our 46 counties solve any of the problems that have been identified? No, it would not. Roll maintenance would represent a massive administrative burden on county election offices, one that they simply could not fulfill. Many are already underfunded and understaffed. Even with much greater funding, inter-agency communication and security issues would be greatly amplified. Instead, the State Election Commission should continue to maintain our voter rolls and work on improvements.

We must recognize that no matter how carefully our election officials maintain them, rolls will never be perfect. There will always be some lag between the death or other disqualification of a voter and the update of voter registrations. However, this is not the end of the story. Election systems and procedures have been developed over decades to safeguard our process. South Carolinians can vote with confidence that illegal votes are rare and that when the final election results are reported, they are an accurate reflection of the will of voters.