Will your ballot will still count if an election worker writes on it? What to know
Voter turnout has been strong so far in North Carolina, and as Election Day nears, state officials are clearing up a common misconception about election workers at polling sites.
They’re addressing the myth that writing on a ballot invalidates it — which is not true.
Why do poll workers write on ballots?
There are several reasons why election workers are often required to write on ballots by law.
“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,” the State Board of Elections said in a recent press release.
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.
Aside from special numbers used to retrieve ballots, some North Carolina voters may also have their precinct written on their ballots.
“Election Day ballots are not retrievable, but poll workers may need to write the precinct name on ballots for post-election sorting. They may also write notations on provisional ballots,” the NCSBE website says.
Will my ballot count if a poll worker writes on it?
Yes. Those markings will not affect how your ballot is processed, and you do not need to request a new one.
“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,” according to the NCSBE.
“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.”
You can find more information and voter resources ahead of Election Day online at ncsbe.gov/voting.
This story was originally published October 30, 2024 at 5:03 PM.
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