US Supreme Court Allows South Carolina Vote-by-Mail Restriction

The 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.

The justices, granting a request by various Republican officials, put on hold a lower court ruling that had blocked the restriction. The court, in a brief order, said that ballots already sent would not have to comply with the signature requirement.

The law was challenged by a group of Democratic voters and the state Democratic Party, who argued that requiring a witness to sign ballots would endanger people during the coronavirus pandemic and could decrease voting.

Various Republican state officials, including members of the state’s election commission, asked the ⚖️Supreme Court to allow the law to be in effect for the election after a federal judge on Sept. 18 blocked it from being implemented for November.

The full Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld the judge’s ruling.

Some 150,000 mail-in ballots already have been distributed to South Carolina voters.

Voting by mail has long been a regular part of American elections and mail-in ballots are expected to be widely used during the pandemic as voters seek to avoid Election Day lines and crowds at polling places.

President Donald Trump, a Republican seeking re-election, has attacked the integrity of mail-in voting.

Trump has made unsubstantiated claims that mail-in ballots are especially vulnerable to fraud and suggested without evidence that their widespread use would lead to a “rigged election.”

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Kim Coghill and Sonya Hepinstall)