The SC Safe Elections is about ensuring that:
- South Carolina citizens’ votes are accurate, secure, and transparent
- Voter registration rolls are maintained in a timely and accurate manner
- There is accountability, accuracy, and auditability of the election process
We are a nonpartisan grassroots group of concerned citizens all over South Carolina who want to return confidence to the election process. Our goal is to improve our election system in South Carolina by educating citizens and legislators on the complexity and vulnerability of the current system and advocating for Gold Standard Elections that are secure, verifiable, transparent, and accessible.
Our current election process is complex and non-transparent. It is a “black-box” operation with no audit records to confirm correct vote counts. No election officials in our state are elected, and the appointed Election Commission has no accountability. The people of South Carolina no longer have control over our elections. It is no wonder people don’t trust their elections.
We have worked 24/7 at our own expense since the 2020 election to keep our SC elections safe and secure.
We have four main goals:
- Convince our legislators to pass adequate election reform to ensure that future elections are fair, accessible, transparent, and secure. Ideally, we would like to return to one day of voting, minimal absentee balloting, and a safe, hand-counted, paper ballot system. We must also return the role of elections to the local level–counties and precincts.
- Return to paper ballots and poll books. It has been proven repeatedly that our election management systems can be penetrated. Returning to a paper ballot system is the only way to protect against that. Absentee balloting is a gateway for potential fraud and should be kept to a minimum. Strong proof of voter ID should be instituted and enforced. We can mark and count our votes with people, pens, and paper.
- Clean the voter rolls and reform our registration process. Currently, we use information from the ERIC system to move people from active to inactive status if they move or die; however, this system is not working well. (In fact, non-ERIC states have more accurate rolls than states enrolled in ERIC.) We continue to see people in both categories who are still active and who are voting. This process needs to be revamped, and registering to vote should include verifying all appropriate paperwork to confirm legal voting status.
- All phases of the election process must be observable by bipartisan teams, poll observers, and watchers. The casting of the vote shall be secret. Still, the counting is public per our constitution, and it should be recorded with records available to the public 48 hours before canvassing certification.
We are the election experts in South Carolina and team with other specialists and advocates across the United States. Our Gold Standard Plan for elections is a collaboration of election authorities from several states with over 25 years of experience in election reform and analysis.
“A man without a vote is a man without protection.”
― Lyndon B. Johnson