In light of finding Durham County elections workers had counted dozens more votes than had actually been cast, the State Board of Elections has decided to scratch 892 provisional ballots and mail out new ballots to those voters more than two months later. In a meeting to finalize the results of the March 15 primary, the board voted unanimously to approve only 147 provisional ballots that could be checked for eligibility and moved to send out new ballots to voters whose ballots could not be verified. The decision came out of a state investigation into discrepancies in the Durham County election primaries that found the state only had physical copies for 980 provisional ballots, despite having approved or partially approved 1,039 provisional ballots to count toward final election totals.
A voter casts a provisional ballot in a number of circumstances, such as when an elections worker doesn’t have a record of the person’s registration or the voter failed to provide photo identification or report a move. The voter fills out a ballot and other information. Local election officials determine later whether the person was qualified to vote. If so, their ballot is approved or partially approved and included in the totals.
Executive Director Kim Westbrook Strach told the board she believes some of the provisional ballots were tabulated twice. It is a low-grade felony for an election worker to knowingly falsify election returns and the board is continuing its investigation into whether any Durham County election workers will be charged with criminal activity.
Determining which of the 1,039 ballots should count couldn’t be done because some provisional ballots are only partially approved to count toward specific races, Strach said. And two different election computer systems came up with different tallies on how the 1,039 were allocated among the four partisan ballot choices: Democrat, Republican, Libertarian and unaffiliated.
Full Article: Some Durham County voters will receive new primary ballot | News & Observer.