Judge refuses to block voter data transfer, noting election agency’s promise to sign agreement first
People vote during the South Carolina Republican presidential primary at Kilbourne Baptist Church on Feb. 24, 2024, in Columbia, South Carolina. Sean Rayford via Getty Images
A Circuit Court judge in South Carolina refused Wednesday to temporarily block the South Carolina Election Commission from sharing information with the Department of Justice.
This story was originally published by the South Carolina Daily Gazette.
COLUMBIA — A Circuit Court judge refused Wednesday to temporarily block the South Carolina Election Commission from sharing information with the Department of Justice.
But Judge Daniel Coble’s ruling doesn’t mean the transfer is imminent. State and federal officials are still working out the details for security safeguards and how the data will be transmitted, according to the agency.
In his conclusion, Judge Daniel Coble noted he has “grave concerns about federal overreach and encroachment over this State’s sovereignty.”
However, he wrote, that’s not the issue at hand. He laid out several reasons for denying the motion to temporarily block the release of data.
First, he said, Calhoun County voter Anne Crook has failed to prove she’ll suffer harm without an injunction. Her motion sought to block any exchange of data until there’s a memorandum of understanding between the election agency and U.S. Department of Justice.
As Coble noted, Election Commission officials testified in court last Friday that won’t happen anyway.
“They have stated point-blank that they will not release the data to the DOJ without an MOU,” the judge wrote. Additionally, he noted, attorneys promised that the agency’s governing board would discuss and vote on the agreement in public before any transfer.
And any agreement is likely weeks away, testified acting director Jennifer Wooten.
The U.S. Department of Justice asked for the information —including names, birthdays, addresses, drivers’ license numbers and final digits of Social Security numbers — in August as part of a push by the Trump administration to get every state’s voter rolls.
Crook, a former president of Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, filed the lawsuit in response, citing privacy concerns.
The final reason Coble gave in denying the motion is that Crook is unlikely to win her challenge.
State law gives the commission authority to enter data sharing agreements for voter registration data. Federal law likely requires the commission to provide the requested information. And the state isn’t challenging the request, he wrote.
“Federal law likely preempts state law in this area,” Coble wrote in his conclusion. “The State at this point has interpreted the law as requiring compliance.”
He postponed deciding on Gov. Henry McMaster’s request to dismiss the case.
But the governor called it a win.
“Today’s victory will help maintain the public’s confidence in the security and integrity of our state’s voter rolls and elections,” spokesman Brandon Charochak said in a statement.
The election agency already shares its information with 32 states and Washington, D.C., spokesman John Catalano told the SC Daily Gazette last week.
Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, who is representing Crook, said he was glad to get assurances the commission will first sign off on an agreement protecting voters’ privacy.
If the agencies can’t strike a deal, or if it doesn’t meet the standards of privacy the lawsuit was trying to set, the door is still open to try blocking the release of data again, said Hutto, D-Orangeburg.
“What we were asking all along is that they just don’t up and transfer everything — that there be some insurance of confidentiality,” Hutto said.
Skylar Laird contributed to this report.
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