The Charleston County Board of Elections and Voter Registration have partnered with the Charleston County Public Libraries and will make four library branches available on the primary election day. 

Early voting is available through Friday June, 10 2022 from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., at the Charleston County Board of Election office.

Voters must state which party’s ballot they’d like to receive regardless of when or how they choose to vote and can only vote in one party’s primary election.

Primary election day is Tuesday June, 14 2022. 

In addition to the regular voting precincts, the current partnership opens voting at the following four CCPL locations on election day: 

Isaac D. Cramer, Executive Director of Charleston County Board of Elections and Voter Registration, says they “approached the libraries about expanding [the] partnership.” 

The four branches will also be polling locations in November. “So not only will they serve as early voting locations in November they will also be election day polling locations, which means voters in that precinct will vote there,” added Cramer. 

As for language accessibility, no jurisdiction in South Carolina meets the criteria for the Language minority provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Section 203 states that “The language minority groups covered by Section 203 are those that speak Asian, American Indian, Alaska Native, and Spanish languages.” The criteria are specific and limited to “voting-age citizens” who are “limited-English proficient.”

Cramer, who is Latinx himself, says that while information for Spanish-speaking citizens is currently unavailable, as director, he wants to “provide the information to all the voters.” He expects to make progress over the next year or so. 

Absentee Voting Criteria: 

• Only available via mail
• The deadline to return absentee ballot applications is 11 days prior to Election Day at 5:00 PM
• Limited to requesting five absentee ballot applications, in addition to one’s own
• Limited to returning five absentee ballots, in addition to one’s own
• Voter’s name, DOB, and last four of SSN required for a request for an absentee ballot application 
• Name and photo ID of voter or of voter’s authorized representative must be verified before absentee ballot is accepted, if delivered in person

Voters qualified to vote absentee regardless of whether they can vote in person:

• Persons who are physically disabled
• Persons 65 years of age or older
• Members of the Armed Forces and Merchant Marines, their spouses, and dependents residing with them
• Persons admitted to hospitals as emergency patients within four days of an election or on Election Day

Voters qualified to vote absentee only if they are unable to vote in person during the early voting period and on Election Day:

• Persons with employment obligations who present written certification of the obligations to the County Board of Elections
• Persons who will be attending sick or physically disabled persons
• Persons confined to a jail or pretrial facility pending the disposition or an arrest or trial
• Persons who will be absent from their county of residence