South Carolina Voting Records online consist of voter registration lists. Indexed collections will be the easiest to search; image-only collections will contain the most information.

In the United States voting rights have always come with limitations. In the 1700s and early 1800s, voting rights were restricted primarily to white men who owned property and some states restricted voting rights even further.

During the 1800s voting rights restrictions were gradually reduced and voters didn’t need to own property and, after 1870, race was not a qualification to vote but some states still restricted voting through poll taxes (a tax paid to vote which affected the less affluent), literacy tests, all-white primaries, and language requirements.

The 1900s saw the greatest expansion of voting rights including:

• rights were extended to women (1920)

• the Voting Rights Acts to prevent additional prohibitive voting laws (1965)

• poll taxes were banned in the U.S. by the Supreme Court (1966) 

• the right to vote for anyone 18 years old or older (1971)

• protection for language minorities (1975)

• protection for people with disabilities (1982)

• and simplified voter registration (1993).

Voting records may include:

• name

• physical description of person

• age

• gender

• registration date

• dates voted

• residence

• marital status

• property ownership

• occupation

• place of birth

• citizenship status, if naturalized, date, court

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KEY to collections

• FS=FamilySearch FREE but login with your free account to access
• Anc$=Ancestry – fee site
• MH=MyHeritage – fee site
• AG – AccessGenealogy
• GTHG – Genealogy Trails History Group
• IA – Internet Archive
• RW – RootsWeb

South Carolina Voting Records online

South Carolina – Voting Registers – South Carolina, County Voter Registration Records, 1882-1895, index links to images, at Fs

Barnwell County – Voting Registers – Manning Collection, Barnwell County, South Carolina Records, 1717-1965, at FS

Darlington County – Voting Registers – Darlington County List of Voters About 1876, at FS

Lexington County – Voting Registers – 1868 Voter Registration, Lexington County, S. C : in Alphabetical Order by Election Precinct, at FS

Lexington County – Voting Registers – Minutes of Meetings, 1882-1906, at FS

Williamsburg County – Voting Registers – Voter Registration Books, 1882-1895, at FS

York County – Voting Registers – Voter Registration Book, 1884-1895, at FS