I Voted Stickers from 2023. (Provided by Charleston County Board of Voter Registration and Elections)
COLUMBIA — Residents of South Carolina have an extra 10 days to register to vote following widespread damage from Tropical Storm Helene that knocked out power and shuttered several election offices in the state.
This means the last day to register for the general election is now Oct. 14. The new deadline applies to in-person, online and mail-in voter registration.
A Richland County court granted the state Democratic Party’s request for a temporary injunction following a Friday morning hearing.
“This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s an issue of the public good and ensuring the right to vote is protected for everyone,” said Richard Hricik, the attorney representing the state Democratic Party, in a message to the SC Daily Gazette after the injunction was granted.
Without the injunction, Friday would have been the last day residents could have registered in person at a local election office, and Sunday would have been the deadline for registering online. But after the storm, which left county boards of election closed in some counties days before the deadline, the party asked for more time.
The court’s decision came a week after winds from Tropical Storm Helene ripped down trees and power lines across the Palmetto State, particularly along South Carolina-Georgia border and through the Upstate. The total death toll in South Carolina was 41 as of Thursday afternoon, with 3,500 homes damaged and 330,000 homes and businesses without power.
This is not the first time a South Carolina court has moved a registration deadline in the wake of a disaster.
Following Hurricane Florence in 2018, state Attorney General Alan Wilson sued for and received a court order extending the voter registration deadline by 10 days.
In this case, the attorney general did not take any action as the Democratic Party had already filed, according to a spokesperson.
Three non-partisan groups also sent a letter to Wilson, Gov. Henry McMaster and the state Election Commission Thursday requesting a one-week extension to the voter registration deadline. The letter came from the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters and the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP.
Additionally, that letter asked state officials to inform voters of their options if a photo identification is damaged or lost in the storm, including obtaining a free identification card from a county election office or state Department of Motor Vehicles office.