Election official blocks her mother’s mail-in vote, because she died before Election Day

A North Carolina election official said she wanted to do everything she could to keep the 2020 election honest, even if it meant challenging a ballot cast by her own mother.

Brunswick County Elections Director Sara Knotts knew her mother had voted by mail. But on Oct. 11, after putting her ballot in the mail but before Election Day, her mother died from a brain tumor.

Knotts stood before her county elections board Friday afternoon but couldn’t say the words.

A colleague said it for her. Her mother’s vote was no longer eligible for the count.

Board of Elections spokesman Pat Gannon said eligibility to vote is based on Election Day: If someone isn’t alive on Election Day they’re ineligible to vote, even if they have voted in-person or their ballot is in the mail.

“I couldn’t even bring myself to start doing the briefings on the challenges and I couldn’t figure out why,” Knotts said. “Then I opened the folder, saw her name and realized I had been putting it off.”

Remembering Anne Ashcraft

Anne Ashcraft, 62, learned she had a brain tumor a week after Mother’s Day.

She had been falling and her family wondered if she had had a stroke. Her husband convinced her to go get checked.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ashcraft learned the news alone in an emergency room without her family by her side.

And she was a nurse so she immediately knew what the diagnosis meant and what would be coming in the following months.

Outside the hospital, her husband sat in his vehicle in the parking lot waiting for news.

She called him from inside the hospital and they cried together.

Her family gathered the next day.

“She was so positive and relaxed about it,” Knotts said. “She didn’t go into a panic.”

Knotts said the family panicked around her trying to figure out what would happen and what the next steps would be, but her mother’s strength continued.

Grandmother and caretaker

Knotts said Ashcraft had three grandchildren and they were her world.

Since the birth of Knotts’ daughter six years ago, Ashcraft had watched over her. Knotts also had two stepchildren and Ashcraft immediately adopted the role of grandmother.

“My mom, if I think about her, was a grandma,” Knotts said. “That was her favorite role. She was born to be a grandma.”

Knotts said when her stepchildren were out of school for summers, Ashcraft would take them up to the mountains.

“It kind of brought her back to probably her youthful ways, being a grandmother,” Knotts said. “And having fun was always important to her.”

Her death wasn’t the only tragedy to strike the family in 2020.

Ryan Knotts

On Feb. 2, Knotts’ stepson Ryan was driving from the Brunswick County Board of Elections office to his other job at Chick-fil-A when he lost control of his vehicle. Ryan Knotts, 18, wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and died in the wreck.

“She really grieved him,” Sara Knotts said of her mother.

When Ashcraft learned about her cancer three months later, she found peace in the belief that she would be reunited with Ryan Knotts.

“She said, ‘You know, I’m going to get to hang out with Ryan again. It’s going to be fine. We’re going to reconnect and we’re going to cut up again,’” Knotts said.

The Ashcrafts had planted a tree in their backyard in Ryan Knotts’ memory. Ashcraft was cremated and asked that some of her ashes be spread under Ryan Knotts’ tree.

The election

Sara Knotts said her mother didn’t talk often about politics — that was more her father’s thing.

But she remembers going to the voting booth with her mother as a kid. It was the kind of booth where you walk inside and close the curtain behind you.

“She always thought it was really important to get out and vote, so making sure that she got the chance to do that, even if I knew in the back of my head we may not be able to see it through and actually count it, I think was important,” Knotts said. They put her ballot in the mail.

Knotts said when allegations about “dead people” voting come up, they’re not talking about a situation like her mother’s. The allegations are generally that ballots have been cast in someone’s name after their death.

But Knotts has seen the Facebook posts. She’s read the hateful comments. She knows that there is a lack of trust in the election and election officials, she said.

And she knew that her mother’s ballot had become ineligible and that she had to step in.

If she hadn’t, it would have been a month or two, and after the election was certified, that the board would get the next batch of deceased-voter notifications.

So Knotts filed the paperwork on her mother.

Her dad got “teary-eyed” when she told him.

“He was like, ‘You’re doing a good job. You’re doing what you’re suppose to,’” Knotts said.

The challenge

Knotts stood before her board Friday and went through the challenges:

• Four felons
• Three people who, due to confusion, cast two ballots
• A residency issue

And her mother.

Knotts said she thought she would be able to handle the challenge, but 30 minutes before she had to leave the room and got very emotional.

A staff member took over for her.

“The county attorney and the board knew, so they kind of breezed right through it so we didn’t have to dwell on it,” Knotts said.

Later, she took to Twitter to say that was the hardest thing she’s had to do as an election official.

“Sara’s situation tugged at all of our heartstrings in the elections community,” said Karen Brinson Bell, director of the N.C. Board of Elections. “She did the right thing under the circumstances. She selflessly put the fair and impartial administration of the election ahead of everything else, despite how painful it must have been personally.”

Knotts said this election has been hard on her and her staff. The allegations and suspicion hurt them.

And they got personal.

Knotts said someone had gone so far as taking a picture of one of her staff members making a personal call outside the office. The person posted it on social media with allegations that the elections employee was working for Democrats.

By the Friday after the election, Knotts said, they felt beat up.

She shared her story after the canvass to show how seriously officials are about elections.

“I wanted people to trust the process and know that not just me, but all election administrators, worked hard for this,” Knotts said. “We really want people to have trust in the system.”

Bell added that election officials sacrificed a lot to ensure a fair election.

“We hope Sara’s story helps the public understand the passion, dedication and sacrifice it took to ensure more than 5.5 million voters could cast their ballots safely and securely during a global pandemic,” Bell said.

And Knotts said she’s hoping the public gets one more lesson out of her story: make time for family.

“Don’t take time for granted,” Knotts said. “You’re not promised tomorrow.”

This story was originally published November 14, 2020 at 2:38 PM with the headline "Election official blocks her mother’s mail-in vote, because she died before Election Day."