U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a requirement that South Carolina residents voting by mail in November’s election get a witness to sign their ballots.
because of the coronavirus pandemic, but Republicans had defended it as deterring fraud.
The court said that any ballots cast before the court's action Monday evening “and received within two days of this order may not be rejected for failing to comply with the witness requirement."State Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick cheered the decision. “Despite the Democrats’ efforts to hijack a pandemic and use it to meddle with our election laws, they’ve lost,” he said in a statement.
Pointing to the coronavirus pandemic, state and national Democratic Party organizations and several individual voters challenged the requirement and other parts of state election law. And a judge blocked the witness requirement before the state’s primary in June. U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, an appointee of President Barack Obama, late last month put the witness requirement on hold for the presidential election. She wrote that it could increase the risk of some voters of contracting the virus and require other voters already infected with the virus to risk exposing witnesses.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Supreme Court reinstates South Carolina ballot witness requirementU.S. Supreme Court reinstated a requirement that South Carolina residents voting by mail in November’s election get a witness to sign their ballots.
Read more »
Supreme Court reinstates South Carolina witness requirement for absentee ballotsThe Supreme Court has granted the request of South Carolina state election officials to reinstate, for now, a long-standing requirement that absentee ballots be signed by a witness.
Read more »
U.S. Supreme Court allows South Carolina vote-by-mail restrictionThe U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ensured that a restrictive Republican-backed law in South Carolina that requires voters to have a witness sign mail-in ballots will be in place for the Nov. 3 election.
Read more »
Supreme Court restores witness signature rule for absentee ballots in South CarolinaThe high court temporarily reinstated the witness signature rule while the case progresses in court but said any ballots received in the next two days without the signature must be counted.
Read more »
Supreme Court sides with Republicans, reinstates witness requirement in South CarolinaIn a victory for Republicans, the Supreme Court on Monday reinstated the witness requirement for South Carolina mail ballots after lower courts ruled that having that requirement created risk during the pandemic
Read more »
Supreme Court Reinstates South Carolina’s Absentee-Ballot Witness RuleThe Supreme Court Monday reinstated South Carolina’s requirement that voters obtain a witness when casting absentee ballots, blocking lower court orders that suspended the rule because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Read more »