South Carolina officials refute 'election cheating' claims

"South Carolina Poll Station not letting American submit their own ballots," says a November 4 X post from Wall Street Apes, an account AFP has repeatedly fact-checked for spreading disinformation.

The post shares a selfie video of a man in his car overlaid with the phrase "the election cheating."

"I just went by one of the places that you vote at where I live at. And you don't go in to vote -- you pull up in your car, they bring the machine out to your car, they push the buttons for you. There was no Republicans there, they were all Democrats," he says.

"What is going on America? What the hell is happening in our country right now with our elections? There's no way I'm going to trust the election after what I've seen today. There is no way."

The same video, which originated October 24 on TikTok, also spread across X and Instagram.

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Screenshot from X taken November 5, 2024

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Screenshot from TikTok taken November 5, 2024

The posts are the latest in a crush of misinformation about the White House campaign pitting Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The US intelligence community has warned of disinformation aimed at undermining Americans' confidence in the voting process (archived here).

AFP has previously debunked numerous claims of ballot-flipping and other malfeasance at polling places across the United States. The latest allegations are similarly false.

"While the vast majority of voters vote inside the polling place, state law does allow voters who are unable to access the polling place or stand in line to vote due to a disability or being age 65 or older to vote in their vehicle (curbside voting)," said John Michael Catalano, public information officer for the South Carolina State Election Commission (archived here), in a November 5 email.

"Voters with disabilities and voters who are blind or unable to read or write may receive assistance in voting. Voters must inform a poll manager if they require assistance. The voter may choose anyone to assist in casting their ballot except for their employer, an agent of their employer, or an officer or agent of their union."

However, only those who individually qualify for assistance can vote from a car (archived here). Someone who drives with a qualified voter to a polling place may not cast their ballot curbside simply because they are in the same vehicle.

"While a voter may receive assistance in voting, only the voter is allowed to make the selections on their ballot," Catalano added.

Guidance from the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division outlines several federal laws protecting the right to vote for Americans with disabilities (archived here).

"Any alternative method of voting must offer voters with disabilities an equally effective opportunity to cast their votes in person," the guidance says. "For example, the only suitable polling site in a precinct might be an inaccessible building. In this rare circumstance, election administrators may provide 'curbside voting' to allow persons with disabilities to vote outside the polling place or in their cars."

Videos from South Carolina news organizations and election authorities show how curbside voting works in the state (archived here and here).

Julian Young, director of voter registration and elections in Florence County -- where the man in the video shared online appears to live -- told AFP that the jurisdiction "had a large population of both senior adults and other voters with disabilities who meet the requirements to receive curbside voting during early voting."

"Our workers who service our curbside voters are trained in all ways to observe the privacy and security of the person casting a vote. We have not received any incident reports suggesting that our workers have touched the curbside voting machine screens," he said in a November 5 email.

"After the voter makes their selection and their ballot is printed, the voter has to place their ballot into a protective sleeve to keep any worker that is assisting them from touching or viewing their ballot."

AFP could find no credible media reports of residents being prevented from voting in 2024 in South Carolina, where nearly half of all registered voters in the state cast their ballots before Election Day. The vast majority of those votes were in person, according to data from the South Carolina State Election Commission (archived here).

Fraud is exceedingly rare in US elections.

Of the tens of millions of ballots cast in the 2020 and 2022 polls, there have been relatively few criminal fraud convictions, according to a database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation (archived here). Studies compiled by the Brennan Center for Justice, which reviewed fraud cases before 2020, also found wrongdoing is uncommon (archived here).

AFP has fact-checked other misinformation about the 2024 presidential election here.