What it Takes to Make Your Vote Count.

North Carolina

Wanda Little

"'I worry the barriers are just too high and the process is too confusing for people with less privilege to be able to simply exercise their democratic right to vote.'" Benjamin W. Nelson -Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of California.

Main Issues:

35 States allow voters to request last minute ballots when it could be too late for their vote to count.

The new ballot curing process in North Carolina restricts minorities ability to vote.

President Trump encouraged voters in North Carolina to vote twice in order to test anti-fraud safeguards.

fig. 1. In 35 states, voters can request ballots so close to Election Day that it may not be feasible for their ballots to be mailed to them and sent back to election officials in time to be counted. "Will You Have Enough Time to Vote by Mail in Your State?" Washington Post, 31 August. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/31/us/politics/vote-by-mail-deadlines.html?action=click

In 35 states people are given the opportunity to cast their ballots at a time when it could be too late.

In 2018 114 thousand votes were not counted due to being late. Voters should be able to mail in ballots in November knowing that their ballot will be counted. However, to do this, they need to have the right information, and some states are giving bad deadlines. The postal service told the states that “they need to allow a buffer of seven days each way to ensure on-time delivery of ballots. Before a new agreement, North Carolina allowed voters to request last minute ballots 7 days before the postmark deadline, election day. Unlike some states North Carolina allows ballots to arrive after election night, as long as they are postmarked before or on election day. However, that only added an extra three days for it to arrive on time, and if someone sent it in on election day that only gave the postal service three days to get the ballot in on time. While election mail did arrive in 1-3 days in 2018, it's not a guarantee that voters ballots would've arrived on time. Even if voters can meet the deadline while requesting a ballot at the last minute does not mean they should. Oftentimes there is a large amount of ballots cast in at the last moment, making it hard for election offices to count in such a small amount of time.

Fortunately, due to a large amount of deficient ballots that have been held up, ballots in North Carolina can now be received nine days after election day if postmarked before or on election day. This gives the postal service plenty of time to deliver voters ballots. However, this does not mean voters should mail in their ballots on election day. Voters are strongly advised to vote well before election day in order to have time to fix and resubmit their ballot, if there is something wrong with it.

The new ballot curing process restricts minorities ability to vote.

Ballots submitted without a witness signature can no longer be fixed by an affidavit.

Election day is three weeks away and changing the process caused many ballots to be held up. 6,800 ballots were unresolved, 3,300 of them from people of color. Polls show that black voters prefer voting in person vs by mail. However, this year many black voters are voting by mail for the first time due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, a new agreement was just announced creating yet another barrier. The policy states that deficient ballots with a missing witness signature can no longer be cured by an affidavit. An affidavit is a written statement, in this case it would be used to confirm the legitimacy of the ballot. Previously, a ballot submitted without a witness signature could be fixed by an affidavit. However, this caused issues because it meant the voter was not required to have a witness signature on their ballot, and witness signatures are one of the main ways to check for voter fraud. Already the witness policy had already been eased up due to COVID-19, dropping the number of witnesses required from two to one.

Since ballots with missing witness signatures can not longer be cured with an affidavit, this creates one more hoop that voters have to jump through to get their vote counted . Voters have also run into issues with social security numbers not matching, or other missing information. For example, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California named Benjamin W Nelson, went to twitter to explain his situation. He explained that his and his wife’s ballots had been rejected more than once due to their social security numbers not matching with information on file. Nelson explained that they both plan on voting early in person as a solution. However, while he is able to avoid the mail in the voting process, Nelson pointed out that less privileged people may be unable to.

"'I worry the barriers are just too high and the process is too confusing for people with less privilege to be able to simply exercise their democratic right to vote.'" Benjamin W. Nelson .

President Trump encouraged “supporters in North Carolina to vote twice as a way of testing anti-fraud safeguards.”

Unfortunately, another thing that North Carolina voters need to be aware of is the amount of misinformation. In the last week President Trump encouraged “supporters in North Carolina to vote twice as a way of testing anti-fraud safeguards.” This caused officials to rush into a series of preventative measures, including informing citizens that submitting more than one ballot is a criminal offense. Not only does this cause more work for the election officials, both short term and long term, it also creates problems for unaware voters. False information can be very dangerous, and voters need to be aware of what is true and what needs to be taken with a grain of salt. A lot of citizens put a lot of trust in the President, and in this case voters should consider whether that trust is misplaced.

“‘If a voter is informed of a deadline set in state law, the fair assumption is that it’s a feasible one, in this case [Allowing voters to request last minute ballots two days before election day in Ohio], it’s not,” wrote, Mr. LaRose, Secretary of state in Ohio.

Voters have a lot to think about for this upcoming Presidential election. A lot of information is available to voters and they need to be able to sort through it, isolating the facts. While you would not expect it from the President of the United States, President Trump has been giving voters misleading information. This can create a lot of problems, especially for those who have less access to information. It's unjust for minorities to have more barriers just to exercise their right to vote. Deadlines should be made clear for all voters; they should be able to know that their vote will be counted. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and it is important for voters to be aware of neglected information.

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