State Election Commission signs agreement with US Department of Justice

State Election Commission signs agreement with US Department of Justice

COLUMBIA, S.C. (April 28, 2026) - Today, the State of South Carolina, through the SC State Election Commission has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the purpose of sharing of the State's voter registration list with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). This MOU would permit the DOJ to review South Carolina's data to identify potential cases of ineligible or non-citizen individuals on the state's voter rolls and provide that information to South Carolina for further review.

It is a top priority of the SC State Election Commission to protect the private information of our voters, specifically Social Security Numbers. The MOU between South Carolina and the DOJ requires a highly secure encryption process to protect the State's data while also meeting DOJ requirements for reviewing and comparing information from multiple sources to identify potential issues.

The State's data will be provided in a form called "hashing". Hashing is a way to protect sensitive information by creating a unique digital fingerprint for data that represents the data without revealing the data's original content. The hashing process allows the parties involved to be sure they are receiving the same digital fingerprint for the data to be shared. Hashing is a one-way process for checking whether data matches (without revealing the actual data). In contrast, encryption is a reversible process used to protect data so it can be unlocked later with the right key. In this way, the SEC continues to put protecting voter's information high on our priority list.