South Carolina election officials must count absentee ballots that election officials had been planning on rejecting due to an alleged mismatched signature, ensuring voters will not be disenfranchised for this reason in the upcoming November election, a South Carolina district court ruled today.
United States District Court Judge Richard Mark Gergel issued an order finding a portion of South Carolina’s absentee ballot statutes to be unconstitutional. His order prohibits election officials from rejecting absentee ballots due to an alleged signature mismatch. This order will prevent legitimate absentee ballots from being thrown out in the November election due to a perceived signature mismatch based on the judgment of election officials who have no background or training in signature matching.