South Carolina can no longer give voters 65 and older no-excuse access to absentee ballots while requiring younger voters to meet specific conditions, a federal appeals court ruled.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found Aug. 18 that the state's age-based absentee voting system violates the 26th Amendment, which bars states from restricting the right to vote based on age. The ruling in Grant v. Belangia, first reported by Bloomberg Law, overturned a March 2025 district court decision that had sided with state election officials.

Under current South Carolina law, voters 65 and older can cast absentee ballots by mail without providing a reason. Voters under 65 must meet specific conditions, such as work obligations, disability, military service, caregiving duties or being absent from their county on Election Day. Younger voters also face an 11-day application deadline that older voters do not.

"Voting is harder for voters under age sixty-five than those age sixty-five and older — which constitutes an abridgement of the right to vote on the basis of age and contravenes the Twenty-Sixth Amendment," Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory wrote in the opinion. Judges Pamela A. Harris and Julius N. Richardson joined him.

The case now returns to federal district court for a remedy. The judge could extend no-excuse absentee voting to all adult voters or eliminate it for everyone.

What it means locally

York County voters under 65 could eventually gain no-excuse absentee access. But the change almost certainly will not arrive in time for the Nov. 3 Senate District 15 special election between Republican James Burns and Democrat Chad Williams. Armand Derfner, a Charleston civil rights attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the ruling likely will not affect the November election because courts avoid changing voting rules close to an election, according to eciks.org.

The South Carolina State Election Commission said absentee voting rules have not changed and declined further comment, citing ongoing litigation.

State Sen. Chip Campsen, a Republican from Isle of Palms who authored South Carolina's early voting law, argued the state should eliminate no-excuse mail voting entirely rather than expand it, according to the same report.

Appeal likely headed to Supreme Court

State officials have indicated they plan to appeal, potentially to the U.S. Supreme Court, the New York Post reported. Three federal appeals courts have now reached different conclusions on whether age-based absentee restrictions violate the 26th Amendment. The Fifth Circuit upheld a similar Texas law in 2022, and the Seventh Circuit reached yet another conclusion in a separate case.

That three-way split makes Supreme Court review likely, according to Vox's legal analysis. No timeline has been set.

Five voters under 65 originally filed the lawsuit in December 2023. The plaintiffs are represented by Pamela S. Karlan of Stanford Law School, along with the firms Derfner & Altman and Brazil & Dunn.

Voters with questions about absentee voting for the Nov. 3 special election can contact the York County Board of Voter Registration and Elections.