By Nick Neville
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - South Carolina has agreed to share some voter data with the U.S. Department of Justice after nearly a year of negotiations.
State election officials said the agreement includes safeguards, but some voters and advocates have questions.
South Carolina Election Commission Executive Director Conway Belangia said one of the reasons for the lengthy back-and-forth was that state election officials were doing everything they could to ensure voter data was protected.
“It allows us to do research on that situation and deal with it really on a one-on-one basis,” Belangia said. “In other situations, DOJ is dictating that people be immediately removed from the voter rolls.”
The South Carolina Election Commission voted 4 to 1 on Tuesday to turn over voters’ names, dates of birth, addresses and the last four digits of their social security numbers. The last piece will be protected through a process called “hashing,” which converts digits into a unique digital code.
“The hashing means that they can compare it to their information and tell if there is a match, but not what the number is,” Belangia said.
Lynn Teague, vice president for issues and action with the League of Women Voters of South Carolina, has questioned whether the federal government has a role to play.
“The League of Women Voters would prefer that this process not happen,” she said. “But given that it has happened, we believe that the state has actually done a sound job of protecting voters from the information that we have.”
Teague added that ballots remain secretive, but said the real test in this case will come with time and implementation.
Some voters view the agreement as federal overreach.
“Based on the current climate with the current administration, it’s another way to infringe on people’s rights and try to swing the vote in their favor,” Traci Collins, a South Carolina voter, said.
Belangia said the agreement is designed to do the opposite.
“At any time, we have the ability in the South Carolina MOU that we can pull back and stop,” he said. “We can stop the process. If they start trying to misuse our data, we can shut that down.”
Of more than 800 responses to a WIS poll, 60 percent said the agreement has made them less comfortable with voting.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson applauded the agreement in a statement, saying in part, “Ensuring safe, legal, and fair elections is a priority for both President Trump and me. Only American citizens should be voting in American elections. South Carolinians should also have confidence not only in our elections, but also that the transfer of this voter roll data to the Department of Justice will not be tampered with.”
Watch the interview at the link above.
