COLUMBIA, S.C. — President Donald Trump wants to change mail-in voting procedures before November’s general election, and federal judges deemed a South Carolina absentee voting rule to be unconstitutional and age-discriminatory.

At this point, neither means absentee voting policies will change in South Carolina ahead of the general election, according to Sydni Bain, a spokesperson for the state Election Commission.

Pending U.S. Postal Service rules for absentee voting, prompted by a Trump executive order, have been put on hold by a federal judge. The administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court Sunday. More than 250 former and current members of congress, including U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, asked the high court to oppose the plan.

If the procedure is allowed, it would require election officials to use approved envelopes with bar codes and submit voter data to the U.S. Postal Service, according to the New York Times. The U.S. Postal Service will then check submitted ballots against the state-provided list. Lynn Teague, the vice president at South Carolina’s chapter of the League of Women Voters, said even one “problem ballot” in a batch could delay thousands of ballots from being counted, according to a whistleblower account.

The state rules for absentee voting have not changed and “there are no plans to change them,” Bain wrote in a text, when asked if the election agency was preparing for or had any concerns about implementing the Trump administration’s rules.

The new procedure for the mail-in voting system has raised concerns among some state election officials. A whistleblower from the Postal Service had “significant concerns about the USPS’s secretive, rushed, chaotic and fundamentally flawed process” in an account released by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, last week.

“If in fact this executive order is allowed to move forward and this regime is implemented, I would think a number of people should be thinking about trying to vote in person and have some real concerns about the likelihood that their vote will be counted if they vote by mail,” said Sam Simon, an assistant law professor and voting rights and legislative process fellow at the University of South Carolina. He was also the former chief counsel of Blumenthal.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson previously defended the Trump administration’s mail-in voting plan in July.

“It’s already against the law for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, so it’s hard to understand why there’s opposition to President Trump’s executive order to help states make sure the law is followed,” Wilson said in a July news release.

Laura Scharr, who alleged election fraud in South Carolina in 2020, said she supported the executive order for future federal elections because it allowed officials to better track absentee ballots and hold officials accountable.

“Absolutely, I think it would be great, particularly for those states, like I said, that have the universal mail-in ballots,” Scharr said.

However, she said it is likely too late for the changes to be implemented ahead of the midterms in November.

Current requirements and procedures for voting absentee are listed on the South Carolina Election Commission website. Absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. Election Day in order to count.

Advocates encourage in-person voting with pending rules

In light of the pending U.S. Postal Service rules, Teague recommended people vote in-person, either on Election Day or during the early window, if possible.

“We don’t encourage people to vote by mail if they have a choice,” Teague said. “If they do have to vote by mail, take care of it as soon as humanly possible.”

But that doesn’t mean South Carolinians who can’t vote in-person shouldn’t vote absentee.

“It’s better to vote absentee and by mail than to not vote at all,” Simon said.

“But sadly, I think it would be naive if this goes through to place the same level of confidence in your vote if you vote by mail as you would in a normal election, as you would if you vote in person,” he continued.

Voting by mail is intended to help people cast a ballot who cannot easily, or plausibly, go to their polling place. The Trump administration has claimed mail voting leads to more fraud without evidence.

Only a small share of people voted absentee in recent years. More than 100,000 domestic absentee ballots were cast during the 2024 general election in South Carolina, about 4% of total participation. About 56,000 were cast in the 2022 general election and nearly 290,000 were used in 2018. Early voting was allowed in South Carolina in 2022.

The federal changes could occur just weeks before the November general election. In North Carolina, election officials already began sending out absentee ballots and several other states will join in the coming weeks.

South Carolina counties start sending out regular absentee ballots 30 days before an election, which will fall in early October this year. Bain declined to confirm a specific date. Military and overseas ballots must be sent at least 45 days before a federal election.

For South Carolinians that can only vote absentee, Teague recommended bringing the ballot to an election office, rather than sending it in the mail. A voter can allow someone else to deliver their ballot in South Carolina. She also encouraged those casting a ballot by mail to carefully review the state Election Commission instructions and vote as soon as possible.

SC’s absentee age rule struck down

South Carolina is also dealing with the 4th Circuit Appeals court decision determining the state’s absentee voting laws are unconstitutional and discriminate against younger people.

Anyone 65 and older can vote absentee under state law. Younger South Carolinians must have a reason to not vote in person, like having a disability or job obligation.

The three-judge panel determined South Carolina made it harder for some to vote based on age.

“By granting voters aged sixty-five and older unconditional access to absentee-by-mail voting while conditioning that same option for younger voters on eligibility categories, documentation and a rigid deadline, the state allocates voting opportunities unequally based solely on age,” the panel wrote in its decision Aug. 18.

With less than two months before the election, the rules have not changed for absentee voting, according to state officials.

“The rules for absentee voting in SC have not changed,” Bain wrote in a text Tuesday, adding the Election Commission would not comment on ongoing litigation.

The appeals court kicked a decision on the resolution back to district court. When such a decision could come may not happen before the general election.

The court could decide either no one or everyone can vote “no excuse” absentee.

“We leave questions about the timing of a remedy to the district court in the first instance, recognizing that ‘considerations specific to election cases’ counsel against court ordered remedies that might cause voter confusion when elections are imminent,” the appeals court wrote.

Simon said the state General Assembly could also change the law, but it’s uncertain what the Republican supermajority would do.

“People over 65 are part of the Republican constituency, and it would be political dynamite to try to strip some of their voting rights from them,” Simon said. “But in the age of Trump, where a lot of stuff has become a political football, and particularly vote by mail has become really politically fraught, I think there’s some risk that the Legislature will decide to essentially punish people over 65, make it harder for them to vote. And then everybody could wind up worse off, which would be a shame.”

The U.S. Supreme Court could also be asked to weigh in. The case could be a good candidate, Simon said, because appeals courts were split on whether different state’s rules were constitutional. The 5th and 7th Circuit courts upheld similar laws in Texas and Indiana respectively.

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