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H 3518

Election Official Protection Act

2025-2026 Regular Session Introduced by Hamilton Grant and 2 co-sponsors

SC's Election Official Protection Act criminalizes threats/interference against election officials, protects their personal data, and guards election systems and materials.

Member(s) request name added as sponsor: Williams
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WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · H 3518

Summary — H 3518: Election Official Protection Act

Status: Introduced (prefiled 12/05/2024); sponsor name added (Williams) 02/04/2025. Referred to committee; hearings scheduled Nov. 2025. (See “Procedural status” below for details.)

Purpose

The bill creates an “Election Official Protection Act” in Chapter 25, Title 7 of the South Carolina Code to (1) criminalize and provide civil remedies for threats, intimidation, interference with, and obstruction of election officials; (2) protect certain personal information of election officials from public dissemination; and (3) prohibit unauthorized access to or tampering with election-related systems and materials. It also repeals S.C. Code § 7-13-1920 (a prior tampering-with-voting-machines provision).

Key provisions

  • Definition: “Election official” is broadly defined to include members of State/ county boards of canvassers, staff of the State Election Commission, county boards of voter registration and elections, municipal election commissions, and temp/part‑time employees with election duties (Section 7-25-300).
  • Interference, threats, coercion (Section 7-25-310):
    • Prohibits interfering with officials performing duties; threats, coercion, or intimidation intended to impede or retaliate; use or threat of force to influence officials.
    • Prohibits physical obstruction of officials’ access to polling places, canvass meetings, ballot storage, or other election-administration locations.
    • In civil actions, a moving party need show conduct would cause a reasonable person to feel intimidated (no requirement to prove intent to intimidate).
  • Protection of personal information (Section 7-25-320):
    • Defines “personal information” (home address/phone, personal email, photos, directions, vehicle/plate descriptions).
    • Prohibits knowingly posting such information about an election official or their family if the dissemination poses an imminent, serious threat and the poster knows or should know of the threat.
    • Allows officials to submit written requests to state/local officials to remove personal information from Internet-available government records; the government official must not knowingly make that information available online thereafter.
  • Election systems and materials (Sections 7-25-330 – 7-25-350):
    • Prohibits unauthorized access, tampering with, or publication of credentials for voting machines, electronic poll books, election management systems, election-night reporting systems, and the statewide voter registration system.
    • Requires immediate revocation of authorized access for persons found to have published confidential system information.
    • Prohibits willful opening/tampering with ballot boxes and mutilation/destruction of voter registration lists or polling place rosters except as lawfully authorized.
  • Vicarious liability (Section 7-25-360):
    • A person or entity can be held liable for damages if they aid, incite, conspire, or otherwise cause another to violate the article.
  • Enforcement, remedies, penalties (Section 7-25-370):
    • Violations are misdemeanors: up to 3 years imprisonment, a fine up to $5,000, or both.
    • Attorney General, a solicitor, or an election official may bring civil actions to prevent or restrain violations.
    • Attorney General, an election official, or an injured individual may seek damages, investigation costs, attorney fees, equitable relief, and civil penalties up to $1,000 per violation.
    • Civil remedies are cumulative; statute of limitations for civil actions is two years from the alleged violation.

Who is affected

  • Directly: election officials (as defined) and their household members.
  • Indirectly: voters, campaigns, political advocates, members of the public interacting with election officials, election vendors and IT personnel, and government agencies that host public records.
  • Entities that organize or incite others to interfere with officials may face vicarious liability.

Procedural status & timeline (selected)

  • Prefiled: 12/05/2024
  • Introduced / read first time: 01/14/2025
  • Sponsor name added (Williams): 02/04/2025
  • Referred to committee: 02/27/2025 (committee listings vary in the record)
  • Hearings scheduled/rescheduled for Nov. 13, 2025 (locations updated: A-1 and B-2 / virtual options).

Notes and observations

  • The bill consolidates and expands criminal and civil protections for election administration actors and election infrastructure, and replaces an earlier statutory provision governing tampering with voting machines (§7-13-1920) by repeal.
  • The draft in the provided file contains unrelated or merged text from other jurisdictions (a Massachusetts bill on propane contracts). This summary is limited to the South Carolina “Election Official Protection Act” content.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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