1,900 teens won’t be added to South Carolina’s voter rolls despite SCDMV computer glitch, judge rules

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP/WCBD) — Voter registration won’t be reopened for nearly 2,000 teens in South Carolina despite a glitch in the state Department of Motor Vehicles computer system, a judge ruled Friday.

State law allows teens who are 17 to register to vote if they will be 18 by Election Day. That was the case for 1,900 teens who attempted to register for the upcoming election while receiving services at the DMV but were unsuccessful.

A spokesperson for the State Election Commission told News 2 last week that the SCDMV system is not able to send applications automatically to the election office for individuals who are not yet 18 at the time the application is completed.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its South Carolina chapter filed a lawsuit Tuesday, asking the court to add the teens to the state’s voter rolls, arguing that not doing so would violate their constitutional rights and the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

They provided several possible ways the teens could register and be allowed to cast ballots during a Friday morning hearing in Richland County.

“This is a case about a fundamental constitutional right,” ACLU lawyer Allen Chaney said. “First time voters are going to be wrongfully excluded from a historic election.”

But lawyers for the South Carolina Election Commission, the SCDMV, the General Assembly and the Governor’s Office all argued while they were sympathetic toward teens who might miss their first shot at voting for president it was just too late to solve registration problems with county election offices busy running early voting.

The potential voters have to be identified, checked that they are eligible and added to the rolls. “None of this can happen before this general election,” state Election Commission lawyer Michael Burchstead said.

Around 6,000 additional teens affected by the glitch were still able to register after checking and seeing the process wasn’t complete and they weren’t on the rolls, including the 17-year-old who exposed the problem and notified his mom, who then let a Democratic lawmaker now what was going on, prompting the lawsuit.

Lawyers for the state said some burden should have been placed on the teens to make sure they were able to vote before the registration deadline earlier this month.

The ACLU said being first-time voters, they may not have been aware that clicking on a box that said “yes, I wish to register” meant they would not be registered.

“They were not successfully registered and will not find out until Election Day,” Chaney said.

Judge Coble ultimately denied the ACLU’s motion, calling the group’s request “too drastic” and suggesting it could violate the separation of powers doctrine.

“As SEC Defendant stated, there is no effectual relief that this Court could grant and even if it attempted to, the relief sought would create disorder in the voting,” the order stated.

Coble ruled earlier this month to extend the registration deadline for about a week because of widespread damage and power outages from Hurricane Helene. He pointed out from the bench Friday that was “an act of God, not an act of man.”

The DMV has worked with the ACLU to try to determine the scope of the problem. They had to individually review every application that fit under the guidelines to see if the teen checked the box to register to vote.

Allen Chaney, the legal director for the ACLU of South Carolina, expressed his disappointment in the ruling Friday afternoon.

“Our government failed these young voters, and now the same government is making excuses rather than making things right,” Chaney wrote in a statement. “When ‘it’s too hard to fix’ becomes an acceptable reason to disenfranchise voters, we know that there’s work to do. But at the ACLU of South Carolina, we’re in it for the long haul.”

The group said it has not yet made a decision as to whether to appeal the ruling.