Press release from Buncombe County:
Late last week, the Buncombe County Board of Elections discovered that a municipal heading was missing on about 900 absentee ballots that had been mailed to voters in the county. The ballot printing vendor was immediately contacted, and the issue was corrected for all ballots moving forward. Any ballot postmarked after Sept. 15, 2022 has correct headers and is not impacted.
Buncombe County Election Services is issuing replacement ballots to the affected voters, along with an explanation letter. Buncombe County Election Services is asking these voters to submit the replacement ballot, even if they already returned the first ballot. The first ballot has been canceled, and upon receipt of the corrected ballot, the voter’s record will be updated, ensuring that only one ballot is counted per voter.
The absence of a heading on a ballot in no way affects the tabulation of the ballot, as headings are only for contest identification. This issue occurred as a result of human error by Printelect, the North Carolina ballot printer for Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Buncombe County’s voting equipment vendor. ES&S has committed to putting additional procedures in place to ensure this does not happen again.
“Our community can rest assured that every voter will get their correct ballot, and our team is dedicated to the ease and security of the election,” said Director of Election Services Corinne Duncan. “We are appreciative of our vendor for helping to remediate this quickly.”
Absentee ballots returned by mail must be postmarked on or before Nov. 8, 2022 and received by Nov. 14, 2022. Absentee ballots may also be returned to any early voting site or the Buncombe County Election Services office by 5 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2022. Absentee ballots cannot be returned to polling locations on Election Day. For more information, go to www.buncombecounty.org/vote.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.