South Carolina H 3518: Election Official Protection Act

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 3518 Text of Previous Version (Dec. 06, 2024) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 3518

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 ENACTING THE 
"ELECTION OFFICIAL PROTECTION ACT" BY ADDING ARTICLE 3 TO CHAPTER 25, TITLE 7 
SO AS TO ESTABLISH OFFENSES FOR CERTAIN ACTS OR CONDUCT AGAINST AN ELECTION OFFICIAL, 
TO PROVIDE CERTAIN PROTECTIONS FOR THE PERSONAL INFORMATION OF ELECTION 
OFFICIALS FROM PUBLIC DISSEMINATION, TO PROHIBIT UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO, OR 
TAMPERING WITH, COMPONENTS OF ELECTION-RELATED SYSTEMS, AND TO AUTHORIZE THE 
ATTORNEY GENERAL OR AN ELECTION OFFICIAL TO BRING A CIVIL ACTION TO PREVENT OR 
RESTRAIN VIOLATIONS OF THIS ARTICLE, AMONG OTHER THINGS; AND BY REPEALING 
SECTION 7-13-1920 RELATING TO TAMPERING WITH VOTING MACHINES.

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

SECTION 1. Chapter 25, Title 7 of the S.C. Code is amended by 
adding:

Article 3

Election Official Protection Act

 Section 
7-25-300. For purposes of this article, "election official" means a member of 
the State Board of Canvassers or the county boards of canvassers, and a member, 
officer, employee, or other staff of the State Election Commission, county 
boards of voter registration and elections, or municipal election commissions, 
including a person employed or appointed on a temporary or part-time basis, who 
has a duty to perform in connection with an election.

 Section 
7-25-310. (A)(1) It is unlawful for 
any person to interfere in any manner with any election official in the 
discharge of the official's duty or to induce any election official to violate 
or refuse to comply with the official's duty or any law regulating the same.

 (2) 
It is unlawful for any person, whether verbally, in writing, or in person, to 
threaten, coerce, or intimidate an election official, with the intent to:

 (a) 
impede or interfere with the official while the official is engaged in the 
performance of the official's duties; or

 (b) 
retaliate against the official on account of the official's performance of the 
official's duties.

 (B)(1) A person may not directly or 
indirectly use or threaten force, coercion, violence, restraint, damage, harm, 
or loss against another with the intent to influence an election official in 
the performance of a duty of election administration.

 (2) 
In a civil action brought to prevent and restrain violations of this subsection 
or to require the payment of civil penalties, the moving party may show that 
the action or attempted action would cause a reasonable person to feel 
intimidated. The moving party does not need to show that the actor intended to 
cause the victim to feel intimidated.

 (C) A 
person may not intentionally and physically obstruct an election official's 
access to or egress from a polling place, a meeting of a canvassing board, a 
place where ballots and elections equipment are located or stored, or any other 
place where the election official performs a duty related to election 
administration.

 Section 
7-25-320. (A) For purposes of this 
section, "personal information" means a person's home address, home telephone 
number, personal mobile telephone number, pager number, or personal email 
address; a photograph of a person; directions to a person's home; or a photograph 
or description of a person's home, vehicle, or vehicle license plate.

 (B) A 
person may not knowingly and without consent make publicly available including, 
but not limited to, through the Internet, personal information about an 
election official or an election official's family or household member if:

 (1) 
the dissemination poses an imminent and serious threat to the official's safety 
or the safety of an official's family or household member; and

 (2) 
the person making the information publicly available knows or reasonably should 
know of any imminent and serious threat.

 (C) An 
election official may submit a written request to a state or local government 
official to remove the election official's personal information from records 
that are available on the Internet. If a state or local government official 
receives the written request, then the state or local government official must 
not knowingly make available on the Internet personal information about the 
election official.

 Section 
7-25-330. (A) A person may not 
access without authorization, tamper with, or facilitate unauthorized access to 
or tampering with any machine, device, equipment, software, or other component 
of the voting system, or of any other system used in the conduct of elections 
including, but not limited to, electronic poll books, an election management 
system, and an election night reporting system.

 (B) A 
person may not knowingly publish or cau