Voters will get chance to fix or redo their absentee ballots

Voters whose absentee ballots have problems with their envelopes can now expect contact from board of elections offices in order to fix their ballots by Election Day.

And less than 24 hours after North Carolina added new guidelines on handling those problems, the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled that ballots could be collected through Nov. 12 if they were postmarked by Nov. 3, Election Day.

The deadline extension approval is still pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Ten thousand ballots had problems but were caught in the crossfire of three lawsuits pending in both state and federal court and voters could not be contacted until the conclusion of those lawsuits that are now before the N.C. Court of Appeals.

But on Sunday, the N.C. State Board of Elections issued the new guidance to county boards that allowed for voters to be contacted in order to fix their ballots before Election Day.

Senate Leader Phil Berger’s office provided The News & Observer a letter written by Ryan Park, solicitor general for the N.C. Attorney General’s office, to the N.C. Court of Appeals. Park wrote in the letter that Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore agreed that new guidance can be given to the county boards that they may now contact voters who need to fix their ballots.

Park told the appellate court that attorneys for Berger and Moore gave two conditions: that the guidance adhered to a federal court’s order and that there is no mention of Nov. 12 being the last day to accept ballots postmarked by Nov. 3, a matter decided later, on Monday afternoon.

Attorney General Josh Stein’s office announced the changes and the court’s decision Monday afternoon in two tweets.

“The State Board, the legislators & RNC agree that the cure process for absentee ballots can move forward,” the first tweet stated. “My office has notified the Court, & county boards are resuming cure process to make sure every eligible vote counts.”

Within minutes, a response went out from Berger’s Twitter account.

“To clarify, (Josh Stein) and the (N.C. Board of Elections) have agreed to abandon their mid-election rule change and accept the witness requirement law as it existed since earlier this year, which is what we’ve been requesting all along,” the tweet said.

Berger’s office also sent a news release criticizing a “secretive settlement” and said the “chaos” was avoidable.

“Attorney General Stein and Gov. Cooper’s Board of Elections rewrote absentee ballot laws after voting had already started,” Berger said. “Thankfully, they’ve abandoned their attempt to change the witness requirement law, and we can now move on with allowing voters to fix their absentee ballots.”

Plan dropped to accept ballots without witnesses

Two lawsuits in federal court and one lawsuit in state court challenged whether North Carolina’s elections laws disenfranchised some voters because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this year, the General Assembly agreed to several changes to the state’s voting rules including reducing the number of witnesses from two to one who are needed for a voter to cast their ballot by mail.

But Moore and Berger were left out of settlement agreement negotiations that they said circumvented lawmakers’ rule changes and allowed absentee voters without a witness to sign an affidavit saying that it was their vote.

Wake County Judge Bryan Collins agreed to the settlement before U.S. District Court Judge William Osteen intervened and prevented that portion of the settlement agreement from moving forward.

Osteen said that doing so violated the U.S. Constitution which gives authority to make voting rule changes to the General Assembly.

Osteen said he did not feel he had authority to stop the other two agreements in the settlement from going forward.

One of those agreements related to how voters can drop off a mailed-in ballot at either an early voting site or the county board of elections offices; the other was that the state would accept ballots until Nov. 12 that were postmarked in time.

Stein took Monday’s ruling on the latter in the state appellate court as a win.

“This ruling means that the State Board’s COVID-19 adjustments are valid and in place,” Stein said. “Eligible voters can cast their ballots safely and securely, even during a pandemic. All eligible votes will be counted.”

Under the rules issued Sunday, voters’ ballots can be fixed if the voter did not sign the voter certification, the voter signed in the wrong place, the witness or assistant did not print their name, the witness or assistant did not print their address or the witness or assistant signed on the wrong line.

But the county boards were ordered to destroy the ballot and issue the voter a new ballot if the witness or assistant did not sign, the envelope arrived at the county office unsealed or the envelope indicates the voter is requesting a replacement ballot.

If a document to fix the ballot, or a new ballot, needs to be issued to the voter the county boards are mandated to contact the voter within one business day.

This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 2:02 PM with the headline "Voters will get chance to fix or redo their absentee ballots."