COLUMBIA, S.C. — Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden's name wasn't on the initial online sample ballot that South Carolina voters can request online.
The problem was noticed on Thursday morning when people tried to access the document. SCVotes.org, the website of the South Carolina Election Commission, allows people to see their sample ballot if they enter their name and date of birth.
But the ballot that people saw Thursday morning had President Donald Trump's name, as well as the candidates for the Green, Alliance,, and Libertarian parties. Biden's name was missing.
It turns out that was because the Democratic Party had not yet certified with the election commission Biden's name as their nominee. However, the deadline to get that paperwork in wasn't until September 8.
That upset South Carolina Democratic Part Chairman Trav Robertson, who said the incomplete sample ballot should never have been available to the public until the deadline was reached.
“It has become evident that they want to confuse people and they want to keep people from voting,” Robertson told the Charleston Post and Courier. “Remember the election commissioners are political appointees. They shouldn’t have done it before the deadline.
He later tweeted a picture of the letter he sent to the commission after this was discovered certifying that Biden is the nominee.
Since then, News19 has verified that the commission's website has been updated and people will see a sample ballot with Biden's name on it.
SC Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire told the Post & Courier that the ballot is available early for people in the military and overseas to see who the candidates are, since they're mailed blank ballots since most candidates aren't certified when those mailings go out.
It's worth noting there's nothing legally binding about the sample ballot and this will not be the absentee ballot that will be sent to voters.
