Given the unique challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the SC Progressive Network Education Fund has filed suit to extend voter registration beyond the Oct. 6 deadline for mail-in applications in South Carolina.
A hearing before US District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis is scheduled for 11am on Tuesday, Oct. 6, in the Mathew Perry Federal Court House in Columbia. The hearing is open to the public with appropriate ID and face coverings.
The Columbia-based Network Education Fund, a 25-year-old nonpartisan policy and research institute, has been monitoring the state’s election and campaign systems since its formation in 1996. Since 2004, the Network’s Missing Voter Project (MVP) has been doing voter education and registration in the state’s historically under-represented communities.
Network Director Brett Bursey said, “We are nonpartisan, so we don’t focus on candidates. Our job is to help citizens understand how state and local government policies affect their lives so they can make informed decisions about registering and voting.”
For 16 years, trained MVP volunteers have registered voters at events and locations around the Midlands, several thousand in each presidential election year. This year, the MVP partnered with the SC NAACP State Conference to train young Black members on nonpartisan registration practices in 26 counties. Those grassroots efforts were complicated by the pandemic and our commitment to keep volunteers and the public safe.
“Since March,” Bursey said, “health centers, bus transit stations, food banks, and schools have been shuttered or restricted, and large public gatherings have gone virtual. As a result, we have registered just several hundred citizens.”
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, South Carolina is one of only six states that close voter registration 30 days before elections. The Network’s complaint, filed on Oct. 2, points out that the current 30-day provision became law in the 1895 State Constitution, which was written specifically to exclude Black citizens from voting. “The 30-day ban was implemented before the age of cars and electronic transmission of voter registration documents,” Bursey said. In 26 states, citizens may register and vote on the same day.
The complaint notes that the State Election Commission in the past has supported moving the registration period closer to the elections, citing extensions the SEC has provided due to hurricanes. “There is no doubt that pandemic safety measures and government restrictions have prevented some citizens from registering and participating in the next election,” Bursey said.
The SC Progressive Network Education Fund is represented in this case by Free Speech For People; Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP; and Burnette Shutt McDaniel P.A.