Paper Ballots to Replace Electronic Voting Machines In North Carolina’s 2020 Elections

CHARLOTTE, NC – An ‘old school’ method of voting may soon be making a comeback throughout North Carolina.

The familiar electronic voting machines that have been used in Mecklenburg County for the last 12 years, will likely soon be a thing of the past.

“True paper ballot,” said Michael Dickerson. He’s the director of the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections.

He says his office is planning for a major change in the 2020 election season.

“You fill that bubble in and run it through a reader. And that’s what we’ll most likely be going to,” said Dickerson.

The return of the paper ballot is something advocates like the League of Women Voters have been pushing for. They say paper ballots that can be easily read provide more transparency and security than electronic machines.

“They want us to have some sort of paper ballot, paper trail like this so that’s the positive,” said Dickerson.

He says the downside to paper ballots is making sure there are enough at each precinct. The machines never run out. Waste is another issue. Dickerson says he’ll order nearly a million ballots in Mecklenburg county.

“We’ll be voting three, four, five hundred thousand people, so I’ll be shredding half of those (unused ballots),” said Dickerson.

The state board of elections is expected to certify one of the three possible machines for the 2020 season.

But it’s possible the legislature will delay their implementation. The General Assembly voted in 2017 to phase out electronic ballot casting machines, which are used by about 1/4 of the counties in the state, in favor of paper ballot readers.

The NCSBE will meet at 5 p.m. Sunday, July 28, in the Triangle Ballroom at the Cary Embassy Suites to go over the voting machines. The meeting is open to the public.