Elections officials urge voters to follow absentee ballot instructions carefully
voting is underway in North Carolina at least by mail
We were the first state in the country to send
out ballots within 800,000
People have already requested one
Some of the votes have already come in but some
ballots have experienced problems that will have to be correct
corrected before they'll count
W
Rose Travis Fain
Joining us now to talk about the common problems and
how you can avoid them
Travis talk about the problems that elections officials we're seeing
with these ballots
What's the most common It's a witness signatures and that's
by far North Carolina requires you to sign your ballot
but you also have to have a witness
Used to be too with the dial that back because
of the pandemic on the witness is supposed to write
their name allegedly and signed the envelope
We've had nearly 47,000 ballots returned already in less than
two weeks
About 3% have some sort of problem
Most of those problems with witness signature
That does not mean those folks don't get to vote
State is required to reach out and then either let
you correct the problem or send you a new ballot
and spoil the old one so it's not counted
What should people do if they're worried about their ballots
being counted So the state has a new feature on
its website called Ballot Tracks
You can track your ballot through the process almost like
you're tracking a package so you can use that
Also election officials say read the instructions carefully
Your ballot is gonna have detailed instruction with it
You can also call your local board of elections those
air folks who deal with this day in and day
out
They know the answers
In some states balance were thrown out because of voters
Signature doesn't match what's on file but North Carolina doesn't
do that
That's right
Now as you see national coverage of this issue remember
that's not a thing
In North Carolina County election officials have been told specifically
not to throw out ballots
But just because the voters signature doesn't look right
The idea is that the witness confirms that the voter
is who they say they are
Some states have balance rejected because just for example ah
voter may change their signature over the years
Or as they get older their handwriting looks different
The signature doesn't look quite the same
Okay a lot of people requesting bowels
We're not done with us at 800,000 already
That's amazing
North Carolina leading the way in this country
Travis thank you very much
And you can also vote in person in North Carolina
beginning October 15th
That is during the early voting period