This story contains news with liberal commentary.
South Carolina’s Republican legislature, when “adopting some accommodations for the coronavirus pandemic … deliberately refused to suspend” the state’s witness requirement for mail ballots, claiming it’s necessary to deter nonexistent voting fraud. Federal district and appeals courts ordered the requirement suspended to protect South Carolina residents’ voting rights. Read story here.
South Carolina Republican officials are appealing that order to the U.S. Supreme Court, whose conservative majority likely will side with them.
The problem is that more than 150,000 absentee ballots have already been mailed, voters have been told those ballots don’t need to be witnessed, and if the court rulings are overturned those votes won’t count. It’s a form of entrapment.
Across America, Republicans everywhere are throwing up barriers to voting, and trying to make it difficult or impossible for American citizens to vote. The GOP doesn’t look at all like a political party that believes in democracy or supports America’s basic principles.
Photo: South Carolina mail ballot processing facility