RALEIGH – The North Carolina State Board of Elections says administrative markings made by election workers do not disqualify ballots, countering a viral claim that resurfaced as in-person early voting began.
The board issued its warning Wednesday after posts circulated in many North Carolina counties telling voters that any letter, checkmark or other writing by a poll worker would invalidate a ballot. The agency called that claim false and said workers sometimes must write on ballots to carry out state election procedures.
For absentee-by-mail and early-voting ballots, workers may add a number that links the ballot to the voter. The board said that makes the ballot retrievable if officials later determine it should not be counted, such as after a successful voter challenge or evidence that someone voted more than once.
Workers in some counties also write precinct names on early-voting ballots so those ballots can be sorted correctly for post-election reporting. Early voters may cast ballots at any early-voting site in their county, while election results are maintained by precinct.
The board said Election Day ballots are not retrievable, but poll workers may still add a precinct name for sorting or make required notations on provisional ballots. In most counties, a “P” identifies a provisional ballot and an “A” identifies an absentee ballot, helping workers keep those ballots from being placed in a tabulator before county officials review them.
Stray marks generally do not prevent a ballot from being counted, according to the board, as long as the timing bars along the ballot’s margins and the voter-selection ovals are not affected.
The Associated Press independently reviewed the viral claim Thursday and found election officials in North Carolina, Tennessee and Illinois rejected it. Procedures vary by jurisdiction, the AP reported, and election experts recommended that voters get information from their local election officials rather than social media posts.
North Carolina officials directed voters with questions to the State Board’s website or their county board of elections.
Sources
- North Carolina State Board of Elections: Election-worker ballot markings
- Associated Press: Poll-worker markings do not disqualify ballots
Photo Credit: Kenneth C. Zirkel via Wikimedia Commons; CC0 1.0. Voting booth inside the Old State House in Hartford, Connecticut; contextual file photograph. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Rights: CC0 1.0. Cropped for layout.
Editor’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.