South Carolina S 124: SC LEADS Act

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 124 Text of Previous Version (Jan. 17, 2025) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 124

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY AMENDING 
SECTION 7-13-130, RELATING TO MANAGERS' TABLE; GUARD RAIL; GENERAL 
ARRANGEMENT; PRESERVATION OF RIGHT TO VOTE AND SECRECY OF BALLOT, SO AS TO 
ALLOW FOR THE RELEASE OF CERTAIN VOTED BALLOTS AND DE-IDENTIFIED CAST VOTE 
RECORDS PURSUANT TO COURT ORDER, ORDER OF THE APPROPRIATE BOARD OF VOTER REGISTRATION 
AND ELECTIONS, OR FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST; AND BY AMENDING SECTION 
30-4-20, RELATING TO FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT DEFINITIONS, SO AS TO INCLUDE 
CAST VOTE RECORDS IN THE DEFINITION OF PUBLIC RECORD.

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Section 7-13-130 of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

 Section 
7-13-130. (A) The polling places shall be provided with a table for 
the managers. The polls shall be provided with a guard rail, so that no one 
except as herein authorized shall approach nearer than five feet to the booths 
in which the voters are preparing their ballots. The managers at each voting 
place shall arrange the table, desk or other place upon which the ballot boxes 
shall be placed so that there shall be no crowding or confusion immediately 
around the boxes, and suitable means shall be provided to enable each voter to 
approach the boxes and deposit his ballot without interference or hindrance. 
The right to vote of each person so entitled and the secrecy of the ballot 
shall be preserved at all times.

 (B) Voted ballots and any paper and 
electronic records associated with those individual voted ballots must be 
treated as confidential, and no person other than election officials performing 
their duties may have access to those documents, except by:

 (1) court order;

 (2) order of the appropriate board of 
voter registration and elections as part of the resolution of an election 
protest or contest or an investigation of an alleged election irregularity or 
violation; or

 (3) a freedom of information request, 
as provided in Title 30, Chapter 4, for cast vote records. "Cast vote records" 
means a de-identified electronic record of each voter's ballot selections, 
electronically retained on a ballot tabulation machine that may be used to 
count election results for each ballot entry on that machine.

 (C) Voted ballots and paper and 
electronic records of voted ballots, including cast vote records, must not 
disclose the identity of a voter. Election officials must redact any 
information identifying the voter before releasing these documents to the public. 
Any person who has access to an official voted ballot or cast vote record and 
knowingly discloses in violation of this section how an individual has voted on 
that ballot is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined not 
more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned not less than ten nor more than 
ninety days, or both so fined and imprisoned, in the discretion of the court.

SECTION 2. Section 30-4-20(c) of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

 (c) "Public record" includes all books, 
papers, maps, photographs, cards, tapes, recordings, or other documentary 
materials regardless of physical form or characteristics prepared, owned, used, 
in the possession of, or retained by a public body. 
"Public record" also includes cast vote records as defined in Section 
7-13-130(B)(3), with the restrictions provided for in Section 7-13-130. 
Records such as income tax returns, medical records, hospital medical staff 
reports, scholastic records, adoption records, records related to registration, 
and circulation of library materials which contain names or other personally 
identifying details regarding the users of public, private, school, college, 
technical college, university, and state institutional libraries and library 
systems, supported in whole or in part by public funds or expending public 
funds, or records which reveal the identity of the library patron checking out 
or requesting an item from the library or using other library services, except 
nonidentifying administrative and statistical reports of registration and 
circulation, and other records which by law are required to be closed to the 
public are not considered to be made open to the public under the provisions of 
this act; nothing herein authorizes or requires the disclosure of those 
records where the public body, prior to January 20, 1987, by a favorable vote 
of three-fourths of the membership, taken after receipt of a written request, 
concluded that the public interest was best served by not disclosing them. 
Nothing herein authorizes or requires the disclosure of records of the Board of 
Financial Institutions pertaining t