Elizabeth Crum, an attorney for the South Carolina Election Commission, left, and Grayson Lambert, the attorney representing Gov. Henry McMaster, huddle during a district court hearing Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, at the Richland County Courthouse in a case regarding the possible release of state voter information to the U.S. Department of Justice. (Photo by Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — Officials with South Carolina’s elections agency assured a judge it won’t give out sensitive voter information to the federal government until there’s an official agreement in place. And any agreement, they said, is likely weeks away.
Lawyers for a Calhoun County voter appeared before Judge Daniel Coble in a downtown Columbia courthouse Friday, asking the judge to temporarily block the South Carolina Election Commission from sharing the personal data of the state’s 3.3 million registered voters.
South Carolina District Court Daniel Coble hears arguments Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, at the Richland County Courthouse in a case regarding the possible release of state voter information to the U.S. Department of Justice. (Photo by Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette)
The U.S. Department of Justice last month asked for the information — including names, birthdays, addresses, drivers’ license numbers and final digits of Social Security numbers — as part of a push by the Trump administration to get every state’s voter rolls.
South Carolina voter Anne Crook filed the lawsuit in response, citing privacy concerns.
“I’ll tell you what people are worried about,” Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, who is representing Crook, told the judge.
“They’re worried the DOJ is going to get this and they’re going to give it to DOGE. They’re worried DOJ is going to get this and they’re going to create a national database,” said the Orangeburg Democrat. “They’re worried DOJ is going to get this and give it to Homeland Security.”
Lawyers for the Election Commission argued there was no need for a temporary injunction blocking the information’s release because state law bars the agency from sharing it without an agreement in place.
Lawyers for Gov. Henry McMaster went further, asking the judge to throw the suit out altogether.
South Carolina already swaps voter information with other states, though that does not include driver’s license numbers, said Elizabeth Crum, an attorney for the Election Commission.
In all, the state shares its information with 32 states and Washington, D.C., election agency spokesman John Catalano told the SC Daily Gazette.
Most of that goes through a partnership organization known as Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). The ERIC partners include both Democratic and Republican leaning states.
South Carolina also has freestanding agreements with Virginia, Ohio, and most recently, a nine-state agreement led by Texas.
And it has previously shared information with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Crum said in response to a question from the judge.
That information was used by DHS as part of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which is related to immigration. The Election Commission did not immediately provide details about when and what data was shared as part of that program.
Crum pointed to those agreements as examples of how the state plans to approach any agreement with the federal Justice Department.
“They say what the purpose is that they’re used for. It also says who has access to them. It says how they’re transmitted,” she said. “And there are several other security requirements in each of them.”
“There is no reason to believe and every reason to be assured that the Election Commission is not going to share anyone’s data unless and until they have a (memorandum of understanding) that protects the security of confidential information,” Crum added.
South Carolina Election Commission acting director Jennifer Wooten testifies Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, at the Richland County Courthouse in a case regarding the possible release of state voter information to the U.S. Department of Justice. (Photo by Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette)
Acting agency director Jennifer Wooten testified the Election Commission expects the Justice Department to send a draft of the agreement in the next few weeks. The two agencies will then negotiate further on what the final document includes.
Crum also told the judge the Election Commission will hold a public meeting to discuss the proposed agreement before voting on whether to approve it.
In arguing that the case should be thrown out altogether, Grayson Lambert, the governor’s lawyer, said it’s the constitutional right of the federal government to regulate federal elections.
Because the state does not maintain separate state and federal voter rolls, he said, the federal government has a legitimate reason for wanting access to the information.
Hutto commended the Election Commission for making its assurances.
“We all want safe elections,” he said. “We all want fair elections. We don’t want any fraud in elections.
If DOJ has the purest intention of using this information only for the security of the voter database, I don’t know that anybody objects to that,” he continued. “They have failed to say that. They will not answer that question.”
For that reason, Hutto said his client asked the judge to “maintain the status quo until such time as these assurances are in place, so that she can have the comfort and everybody in South Carolina can have comfort that their personal identifying information is protected from misuse and abuse.”
Judge Coble said he will rule on the matter at a later date.