Fact: In NC, if an Election Worker Writes on Your Ballot, It Does Not Invalidate It

State Board responds to inaccurate information spreading on social media and elsewhere.

Raleigh, NC

Aug 2, 2024

The following is a statement from the State Board of Elections regarding social media posts and other communications suggesting that if an election worker writes on your ballot, it would invalidate it.

In North Carolina, this is false. These posts have been circulating for years and have resurfaced recently in many N.C. counties. They are still false.

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 and will not have writing on them unless they are provisional ballots, in which case they may be marked with a "P".

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. Once the ballot goes into the tabulator, the machine uses the bars and the shading of ovals to determine the selections on that ballot, and that ballot will be tabulated just like any other ballot that gets inserted into the tabulator, regardless of any writing in the white space of the ballot.

The 2024 general election is 95 days away on Nov. 5. The first absentee ballots are expected to be sent out on Sept. 6. In-person early voting runs from Oct. 17 through Nov. 2.

For accurate information about N.C. elections, go to ncsbe.gov or contact your county board of elections.

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Patrick Gannon

[email protected]