The past year has brought multiple crises – from the continued murder of Black people by law enforcement, to the direct and collateral harms of COVID-19, to systematic efforts to restrict the fundamental right to vote, and more.
Thanks to ACLU supporters like you, we stood ready to face these crises – and we are ready for whatever comes next.
For the rest of this month, we invite you to tune in as we share some of our accomplishments from the past year. While we achieved many successes in 2020, much work remains before we can consider South Carolina a state where We the People means everyone. Thank you for being part of this work.
Read more about this work:
Expanding Access to the Vote
No person should have to choose between their health and their right to vote. Yet, that is exactly what South Carolina law would have required before we intervened earlier this year.
In April, we along with our partners at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, filed a federal lawsuit over South Carolina’s failure to take action to ensure all eligible voters could vote by mail during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Requiring voters to be physically present at their traditional polling places during the COVID-19 outbreak — where they would be forced to congregate and wait in line with others in order to vote — is contrary to the advice of public health experts.
Following our lawsuit, in September the South Carolina legislature passed legislation to allow all voters to cast absentee ballots because of the COVID-19 outbreak. This action was an important step forward for South Carolinians who want to vote in the general election without risking their health during COVID-19.
Inevitably, the COVID-19 pandemic would have resulted in voter suppression in 2020 elections. While significant, this victory is not enough. We will continue to advocate for the removal of all measures that undermine the fundamental right to vote in South Carolina.
