Local Elections Boards Begin Processing Deficient Absentee Ballots

CHARLOTTE, NC – People in Mecklenburg County continue to show up at early voting sites in droves. On Monday, nearly 31,000 people voted early, which brings the total so far to more than 196,000 votes already cast in the 2020 general election.

“Just to get it out of the way. I don’t want any mess ups,” said one voter at the BoPlex.

“The line isn’t that bad. It’s worth the wait,” said another voter in West Charlotte.

The motivated voters were exercising their rights by casting their ballots early.

“Everyone needs to be voting now. We’re at a time when it’s imperative,” said Lakeisha Woodard, a voter in Charlotte.

As of Monday afternoon, 1.7 million North Carolinians, or 23 percent of the eligible voters had cast their ballots.
But there are about 10,700 mail in ballots statewide that need a correction.

The handling of absentee ballots with a deficiency has been put on hold since October 4th as lawyers argued how to handle them.
In Mecklenburg County there are 700 mail in ballots missing a witness signature or other piece of information.

“The voter signature could be cured by a certification letter that we have sent out. But the witness signature could not be cured by the certification letter that the state directed us to send,” said Michael Dickerson, the Mecklenburg County elections director.

The state now directing local elections offices to notify people who’ve mailed in a bad ballot.

“What will happen is we’ll have to spoil those ballets and send the voter out a new ballot,” explained Dickerson.

Dickerson says those 700 or so people in the county who’ve been notified about a spoiled ballot do have another option.

“Since we have not officially accepted that ballot, they may still go out and vote in person early,” said Dickerson.

The last day to request an absentee ballot is October 27th. It must be properly filled out and post-marked by November 3rd.