A federal appeals court has ruled that South Carolina's mail-in voting law is unconstitutional because it grants unrestricted absentee voting access to residents aged 65 and over while imposing stricter conditions on younger voters. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found this age-based distinction breaches the 26th Amendment, which guarantees equal voting rights regardless of age, in a decision likely to have wider implications for how US states structure their mail-in voting rules.

The case began in 2023 when younger voters sued the South Carolina Elections Commission, arguing the exemption for over-65s was discriminatory; a lower court initially dismissed the claim before it reached the Fourth Circuit on appeal. Chief Judge Roger Gregory ruled that the state must either extend unrestricted absentee voting to all residents or to none, and sent the case back to lower courts for a decision on that basis. South Carolina officials intend to appeal further, potentially to the Supreme Court, and the ruling comes amid a separate, broader legal battle over the Trump administration's efforts to tighten mail-in ballot rules nationally.