RALEIGH, N.C. — A pen mark from an election worker will not cancel your vote, North Carolina election officials say, as an old social media claim about marked ballots circulates again during early voting.
The posts tell voters that any writing by an election worker spoils a ballot and that they should demand a fresh one. The state elections board calls that false and says the claim has popped up repeatedly over several years, most recently in many counties around the state. Officials are asking people not to share it.
State law actually requires some of that writing. Ballots cast by mail or during early voting can carry a unique number tied to the voter, which lets officials pull a specific ballot back out if it should not be counted, such as when a voter dies before Election Day or tries to vote twice. That retrieval rule is spelled out in N.C.G.S. 163-166.45.
Precinct notes serve a different purpose. Early voters can use any site in their county, which runs from Oct. 15 through Oct. 31 this fall, so some counties write each voter precinct on the ballot. That lets staff sort ballots back into the right precincts for reporting after the election, as required under N.C.G.S. 163-132.5G.
Election Day ballots cannot be retrieved, but precinct officials may still jot a precinct name for sorting or add notes to a provisional ballot. Most counties also mark a P for provisional or an A for absentee in the upper left box, so a ballot of either type slipped into a tabulator by mistake can be spotted. Those ballots are sealed in envelopes and must be approved by the county board before they are counted.
Stray marks in general do not stop a ballot from being read. Tabulators rely on the bars along the edges and the filled-in ovals, so a ballot counts as long as neither is disturbed.
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