Ring. Ring. Ring.
I listened to the noise buzz in my ear, confirmation that my phone was actually connecting to some real office back home in Greenville County. The only problem was it didn't seem like anyone was listening.
I first registered to vote back in July, urged into action partly by my family and also by the desire to stop the incessant emailing and overall notifying from websites or political organizations I couldn't remember giving my name to. I registered in Greenville, my hometown, because it was the address listed on my driver's license, and didn't really give it much thought. This at least was a relatively simple process done online, and for someone like me with easy access to a Social Security card, a state driver's license and a good amount of free time, it went without issue.
The road to getting an absentee ballot has proven to be much more difficult.
Originally, I didn't give much thought to deciding to vote absentee. Round-trip, driving home would be at least three hours, plus whatever time I spent waiting in line at the polling place. Studying, maintaining a social life, and the general stress of adulthood left me with no great desire to give up a class-less day.
To start, I saw that the address for Greenville County's election office was listed on the scvotes.gov County Election Offices page under the broad description of "where you send your voter registration form or obtain absentee voting information." Being no exception to my generation's allergy to phone calls, I chose the email option over the phone number listed.
There's one problem with that: Act 150, signed into law in May 2022.
The law prohibits applying for an absentee ballot online, limiting the options to either requesting a physical application over the phone, by mail or in-person. Unfortunately for me, email was not included in this list. At this point I was beginning to get a bad feeling—a hunch you could call it—that this wasn't going to be as easy as I had initially thought. This failed attempt to request a form that would allow me to merely apply for the chance to vote absentee did not exactly fill me with confidence.
The polite email response that rebuffed my request informed me of the act and offered a phone number to call instead. Admittedly, I did not read the responding email right away, nor did I call directly after I learned that my email request wasn't going to be enough. As usual, life got in the way of my plans, and not even my civic duty could overcome it.
It didn't seriously cross my mind again until September 24, when I finally called the absentee office in between classes. I called once and was met with a busy signal. Fair enough, that other prospective voter needed the office as much as I did. I called twice the next day, both times met with no response. Frustrated, I forgot about it for a while. I received a response on October 9, and successfully requested, with uncharacteristic bluntness and some residual irritation, an application from a nice but bored-sounding employee.
It is now en route to my apartment, but I am still skeptical everything is going to go smoothly. So skeptical, in fact, that I now have a back-up plan to make the journey back to Greenville County on Election Day. I can't help but think of people who don't have that option.
I've thought and thought about what I could have done differently and the mistakes that I made. It's true, I could have called sooner, I could have done more research, I could have called more times—it's a veritable mountain of what ifs. I went wrong in many places, but that's not the point people should be focused on: the issue is that there are so many places to go wrong at all.
To look at the 2016 presidential election—an election, which unlike 2020's race, did not have extenuating circumstances due to COVID 19—23.3% of South Carolina's voter turnout was made up of absentee voters. Voters included in this not insignificant portion of the vote could very well be discouraged by Act 150 and the new barriers it has added to absentee voting process. Indeed, it is already having an effect on state elections. Between the midterm elections in 2018 and those in 2022, which occurred roughly six months after Act 150 was passed, the number of total absentee ballots cast dropped by over 230,000.
We're not a swing state, not even close. We've been a staunchly red state for as long as I can remember and then some. But that does not mean South Carolina voters don't deserve fair and accurate representation. That does not mean that suppressive policies like Act 150, which discourage voters, should go uncriticized. That does not mean South Carolina voters don't deserve better.
