GREENSBORO, N.C. — North Carolina election officials told you any ballot received by November 12 would be counted as long as it was postmarked by election day. But some of the ballots arrived at the election office without a postmark.
This really happened. You might have noticed your own mail isn't always post marked. Take a look at these four random letters we've gotten recently here at the station:
Only one of them has a postmark! Here's the deal: the main reason the USPS does postmarks is to make sure you can't use the stamps again. It's not to officially mark the date.
But 21 states, including North Carolina, require a postmark on a ballot to consider it valid. So a post office spokesperson said they made it a policy to "try to ensure that every return ballot mailed by voters receives a postmark." And he went on to say because this "does deviate from normal procedures .... we acknowledge that circumstances can arise that prevent ballots from receiving a legible postmark."
The fix turns out to be pretty simple because North Carolina partners with USPS to use the Ballot Trax program. Mail carriers are supposed to scan in ballots when they are dropped off at the post office. And going back into the system to research if and when that happened for every problem ballot is part of the painstaking process that we witnessed today during vote canvassing.
All to make sure the outcome of this election is fair and that every proper vote is counted.
