Judge Rejects Petition to Approve 1,900 South Carolina Voter Registrations for 17-Year-Olds
The DMV has identified 1,896 individuals who requested to be registered but were not added to the rolls when they applied for driver’s licenses.
A judge denied a request by the ACLU of South Carolina to compel the SCDMV and SEC to reopen voter registration in the state and add eligible 17-year-olds to the voter rolls before the upcoming presidential election.
South Carolina law allows 17-year-olds who will turn 18 by Election Day to be added to the voter rolls, but a glitch in the SCDMV’s system prevented about 17,000 eligible individuals from being registered to vote.
The ACLU’s complaint states that even though thousands of these individuals provided the necessary information to register and expressed a desire to do so, the SEC did not add them to the voter rolls.
The DMV has identified 1,896 17-year-olds who were not added to the rolls despite requesting to be registered when applying for driver’s licenses, as reported by the South Carolina Daily Gazette.
Although the judge expressed sympathy for the affected voters, he deemed the ACLU’s emergency request to be too drastic and disruptive.
The ACLU indicated their intent to continue the legal battle, emphasizing the importance of rectifying the disenfranchisement of young voters.
