South Carolina Moves to New Voting System
South Carolina will implement a $52 million upgrade of its voting system this fall, deploying a paper-based voting system in time for a special legislative election on Oct. 1 and municipal elections scheduled four weeks later.
Until now, South Carolina was one of a handful of states that did not provide voters with a paper ballot from which to choose their preferences.
Election officials accelerated their timetable for rolling out the new system after conferring with election security experts.
Under the new regime, voters will be given a blank piece of paper upon entering their respective polling places and asked to insert it into a ballot marking machine as soon as they are ready.
They’ll then use a touch screen, just as they have the past 15 years, to choose their preferences. After the touch screen allow them to review their choices, they will then press “print,” which prints their ballot onto the piece of paper.
The voter will then feed the paper into the scanner, which will tabulate their vote.
The printed paper will then fall into a locked box under the scanner to be used later in vote auditing.
The state originally planned to put the new system in place on Jan. 1, 2020, but after the initial set up went smoothly, it was decided to go ahead and use it to ensure any kinks are worked out before it is used for South Carolina’s presidential primary on Feb. 29, 2020.
Voting
JACKSON, Miss. - The Mississippi Supreme Court on Friday overturned a voter-approved ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana, holding that the election law governing ballot referendums is out of date. The decision, which could halt other citizen-led efforts to amend the state constitution, struck down a... Read More
WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee tried Tuesday to amend a bill before sending it off to a final vote that would set national standards for elections. It made little headway in reaching agreement in a sharply divided Senate Rules and Administration Committee. Republicans said it was... Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans in the U.S. Senate mounted an aggressive case against Democrats' sweeping election and voter-access legislation, pushing to roll back proposals for automatic registration, 24-hour ballot drop boxes and other changes in an increasingly charged national debate. The legislation, a top priority of... Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are preparing to launch an all-out assault on sweeping voting rights legislation, forcing Democrats to take dozens of politically difficult votes during a committee hearing that will spotlight the increasingly charged national debate over access to the ballot. The bill, as written,... Read More
WASHINGTON - Former Republican Congressional candidate Anna Paulina Luna, who ran unsuccessfully to unseat Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., last year, is suing the Federal Elections Commission saying it failed to address her concerns over her treatment by Twitter. Luna, a former airfield manager in the U.S.... Read More
In 2020, election officials tried to make voting easier and safer amid a global pandemic. Next time, they might get fined or face criminal charges. Republicans are creating a new slate of punishments for the county officials who run elections, arguing they overstepped their authority when... Read More
