The North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) has proposed a new section to absentee voting rules, specifically addressing how election officials should handle absentee ballots with deficiencies, such as missing required information. I offered a public comment at an SBE hearing on June 22. The prepared text of that comment is below:
I am Andy Jackson with the John Locke Foundation.
I support all the proposed general rules for absentee voting.
For too long, county boards of elections have relied on the informal guidance of numbered memos, which are not vetted through the regulatory process, to handle absentee ballots. One of those numbered memos, Revised Memo 2020-19, was overturned in federal court for instructing county boards to cure absentee ballots that were missing witness or assistant signatures.
The rules clearly and formally categorize potentially problematic absentee ballots into four groups, reducing the risk that election workers will be confused about what to do with them.
First, (section 0502), there are ballots with curable deficiencies that can be counted once the voter provides the additional information or documents requested by election workers. One of those deficiencies is that the name on the photo ID provided is not the same as, or “substantially equivalent” to, that on the voter file. Maiden names are considered substantially equivalent. One thing I would like to see added here is a cure process confirming that an illegally transmitted ballot is really from the voter. We may revisit this issue soon if legislation being considered in the General Assembly becomes law.
For non-curable deficiencies (0503), such as missing witness signatures,* the rules require election officials to contact the voter to give the voter an opportunity to cast a legal ballot.
The final two categories are irregularities (0504 and 0505): some may require officials to seek further clarification from the voter before counting or spoiling a ballot, and others will simply be noted and counted.
While much of what is in these proposed rules has already been practiced by election officials, there is value in formalizing that process in state regulations. Thank you.
* From an October 14, 2020, order in Democracy NC vs NC Board of Elections (2020): “Ms. Bell’s declaration [in Revised Memo 2020-19] contradicts her testimony before this court, in which she stated unequivocally that a ballot with a missing witness signature could not be cured, but instead had to be spoiled.”
Here is a link to the proposed absentee ballot rules and a review of them. Here is how you can provide the SBE with your public comment (Deadline: Tuesday, July 14):
- Online on the Public Comment Portal: Absentee Voting Rules
- Email: [email protected] (Specify that you are commenting on the absentee voting rules.)
- Mail: Attn: Rulemaking Coordinator, P.O. Box 27255, Raleigh, NC 27611-7255 (Specify that you are commenting on the absentee voting rules.)
