Last updated on August 12, 2024, 12:57
Below is a statement from the State Board of Elections regarding social media posts and other communications advising that if a poll worker writes on it, your ballot will be invalidated.
In North Carolina this is INCORRECT. These posts have been circulating for years and have recently resurfaced in many North Carolina counties. They are still wrong.
Poll workers often write on ballot papers for various legally prescribed reasons.
For example, poll workers write an identification number on the ballots of voters who vote by mail or during in-person early voting. This is a special number assigned to each ballot and each 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” (NCGS § 163-166.45).
The number can also be used to retrieve ballots in the event of a successful election protest, for example if several voters are given the wrong ballot and the margin of victory is less than that number of voters.
Certain counties also require voting precincts to be marked on ballots cast during early voting so that they can be sorted back into the correct precincts after the election for reporting and data purposes, which is also required by law. See Election Data by Precinct (NCGS § 163-132.5G). Early voters can cast their ballot at any early voting location in their county, which requires ballots to be sorted by precinct after each election.
Election Day ballots cannot be retrieved, but poll workers may be required to write the precinct name on ballots so they can be sorted after the election. They may also write notes on provisional ballots.
Poll workers generally should not make other markings on the ballot. But isolated markings on a ballot should not prevent the ballot from being counted as long as the lines on the edge of the ballot and the selection ovals are not affected. Once the ballot enters the tabulator, the machine uses the lines and the shading of the ovals to determine the selection on that ballot, and that ballot is counted like any other ballot placed in the tabulator, regardless of the writing in the white area of the ballot.
The 2024 general election will take place in 95 days on November 5. The first postal ballots are expected to be sent out on September 6. The opportunity to vote in person on site will run from October 17 to November 2.
For detailed information about elections in North Carolina, visit ncsbe.gov or contact your county election office.
