Election Audits in South Carolina

As of October 1, 2019, all elections in South Carolina are being conducted on a new voting system. Audit techniques and data have changed substantially. No new data will be provided on this page. Existing data will continue to be provided here for historical purposes. The SEC is working to make information on new voting system audits available to the general public through scVOTES.org.

County boards of voter registration and elections (county boards) are responsible for conducting most elections in South Carolina. Municipal election commissions also conduct some municipal elections. The State Election Commission supports the conduct of all elections by providing guidance and training, voter registration system support, and voting system support. The State Election Commission is also responsible for certifying the results of elections for federal offices, statewide offices, state-level offices (Solicitor, State Senate, and State House of Representatives), other multi-county offices, and Constitutional Amendment Questions. Results of elections for other local offices are certified by the authority charged with conducting that particular election.

From 2005-2019, all counties in the State of South Carolina used a uniform electronic voting system manufactured by Election System and Software (ES&S). The system consisted of both optical scan paper ballots and electronic ballots cast via iVotronic voting machines. Paper ballots were tabulated using an optical scanner, and results were loaded into the results tabulation software (Unity) using a memory stick or a Zip drive, depending on the model of scanner used. Electronic ballots were collected from iVotronic voting machines using memory devices known as Personal Electronic Ballots (PEBs) and loaded into Unity using a PEB reader.

Audit data featuring a record of every action taken on a voting machine was collected and stored on compact flash drives in each voting machine. The flash drives were collected from all voting machines, and the audit data was loaded into Unity.

Once all paper and electronic ballots and voting machine audit data were loaded into Unity, results reports and audit data were produced. Voting machine audit data along with audit data stored in Unity were then used to audit, or verify, the results. After the results were audited, the appropriate election authority (state, county, municipal) certified the results, and the results became official.

Description and Details of the Audit Process

Audit Reports and Files