Panel decides citizenship question on SC ballots needs no explanation

State Election Commission Director Howard Knapp, left, signs off on the final language of a constitutional amendment ballot question while Attorney General Alan Wilson and state Legislative Council Director Ashley Harwell-Beach watch during a meeting of the Constitutional Ballot Commission on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024 (Abraham Kenmore/SC Daily Gazette)

COLUMBIA — A question on November ballots asking whether South Carolina’s constitution should specify that “only a” citizen can vote needs no additional explanation, a three-person panel decided Monday.

The Constitutional Ballot Commission decided unanimously that no additional language was necessary to ensure voters understand what they’re being asked.

The Legislature voted earlier this year to put the question on the ballot. It asks if the state constitution’s guaranteed right to vote should change from “every” to “only a” citizen who’s at least 18 and properly registered.

Proponents said it will prevent any future court ruling that would allow non-citizens to vote in local elections in South Carolina . Democrats called it completely unnecessary, though most voted for it anyway.

“Our job is to come up with an explanation that is easier for the average citizen to follow so they don’t have to get a law degree to understand it,” Attorney General Alan Wilson told reporters after the vote. “We’re only changing two words, so we didn’t feel it was needed.”

The commission, which reviews all proposed constitutional amendments, consists of the attorney general, election commission director and legislative council director.

Republicans call for 1-word voting change to SC constitution. Democrats say there’s ‘zero’ need.

It will be the only question that South Carolina voters will be asked.

In South Carolina, only the Legislature can put a question on general election ballots. And any resolution to do so requires supermajority approval in both chambers. The GOP-dominated Legislature repeatedly rejected all attempts over the last session to put an abortion question on the ballot.

But the citizenship question easily met the necessary two-thirds threshold, with a 40-3 vote in the Senate in April and unanimous approval from the House in May.

Some cities and towns around the country have allowed non-citizens to vote in local elections , although sponsors acknowledged none in South Carolina are proposing to allow that.

“This is just an additional safeguard to ensure that somebody might not make the argument that non-citizens could vote in a South Carolina municipal election,” Wilson said Monday.

One co-sponsor, Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms, called the proposed amendment a “belt and suspenders approach” to safeguarding elections.

Campsen pointed to San Francisco, where a local ordinance allowed noncitizen parents to vote in school board elections. The ordinance was upheld by the California Court of Appeals based on similar language in that state’s constitution about “every” citizen being entitled to vote.

Although he acknowledged the issue is unlikely to come up in South Carolina in the near future, Campsen said the amendment would avoid a similar situation ever arising in the Palmetto State.

The question as it will appear on the ballot:

Must Section 4, Article II of the Constitution of this State, relating to voter qualifications, be amended so as to provide that only a citizen of the United States and of this State of the age of eighteen and upwards who is properly registered is entitled to vote as provided by law?