GREENSBORO, N.C. — There is a lot of misinformation going around about the upcoming election. A viewer sent in this text question:
I recently read that if someone marks your ballot before handing it to you, you should request a new unmarked ballot. Is this a fact and why the mark?
"That is a misconception, I'm not sure where that came from. In NC and Guilford County, for example, poll workers will mark your ballot. It may be the precinct, it may be your ballot-style designation. There are some other marks we put on there for a chain of custody and auditing procedures. We will mark something on your ballot and it will count," said Charlie Collicutt, Guilford Board of Elections Director.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections recently addressed this issue. The headline on this page:
Fact: In NC if an election worker writes on your ballot, it does not invalidate it.
In the post, the markings are explained in more detail.
Election workers often do write on ballots for different reasons as required by law.
For example, election workers write an identifying number on the ballots of voters who vote by mail or during the in-person early voting period. This is a special number assigned to each ballot and voter. This number allows the ballot to be retrieved and not counted if necessary due to a voter challenge, such as if the voter dies before Election Day or votes more than once. See Retrievable ballots (N.C.G.S. § 163-166.45).
The number can also be used to retrieve ballots in the event of a successful election protest, such as if several voters are given the wrong ballot style and the margin for a contest is less than that number of voters.
In certain counties, voters’ precincts also must be written on ballots cast during the early voting period so they can be sorted back into the proper precincts after the election for reporting and data purposes, also as required by law. See Voting data maintained by precinct (N.C.G.S. § 163-132.5G). Early voters may cast their ballot at any early voting site in their county, thus creating the need to sort ballots by precinct after each election.
Election Day ballots are not retrievable, but poll workers may need to write the precinct name on ballots for post-election sorting. They may also write notations on provisional ballots.
Poll workers should generally not be placing any other markings on the ballot. But stray marks on a ballot should not prevent the ballot from being tabulated, as long as the bars on the margin of the ballot and the selection ovals are not affected.
You can read the entire page with all the explanations here.
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