On Election Day, North Carolina voters insert ballots into the scanners that count votes in every precinct. Voters know their votes are counted when they see their ballot disappear into the machine, and the voter tally goes up by one.
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But this year, election administrators, legislators and news organizations around the state have received calls from concerned and often confused voters who want to make sure their votes counted.
For voters who cast their ballots early at a one-stop location or mail their ballots well in advance of Election Day, that’s typically as easy as looking up their absentee ballot using a statewide voter search tool.
But another tab on that tool says “Voter History.” And some voters this year have been shocked to see that their voter history doesn’t yet list the November election.
“They don’t see where they voted in person on Election Day, and I think they’re just worried about it,” said Rachel Raper, Orange County’s elections director.
“There’s just a lot of misinformation swirling around. … You know, you think about, those are the people who were calling. Who’s not calling and instead is believing that misinformation?”
But not seeing an updated voter history is normal.
Read the rest of the story here at Carolina Public Press.
Carolina Public Press is an independent, in-depth and investigative nonprofit news service for North Carolina.
