Thousands of voters in North Carolina received ballots with partially-filled out voter information which is against state law. | Pixabay
Thousands of voters in North Carolina received ballots with partially-filled out voter information which is against state law. | Pixabay
Thousands of North Carolina residents received absentee ballot requests forms with voter information that was partially filled out, the Carolina Journal reported on June 12.
Though the North Carolina State Board of Elections said in a statement that the Center for Voter Information asked election board staff to review a sample mailing in April, the staff did not catch the error of the pre-filled forms at that time. The voting group had initially sent ballots out to residents before they were reviewed for compliance.
The error resulted in approximately 80,000 absentee ballots being sent from the third-party provider with partially filled out forms, the Board of Elections said. The third-party organization will send out blank forms to North Carolina residents.
“We will do our best to review mailings and other voting information distributed by third parties when requested and when resources allow for it,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state Board of Elections, said in the statement. “However, it’s ultimately up to advocacy groups to ensure their mailings do not confuse voters or potentially affect their ability to vote in an election.”
The Center for Voter Information, a left-leaning group based in Washington, D.C., had planned to send out 400,000 partly completed ballot forms, reported the Carolina Journal.
The State Board is urging voters that received ballots with pre-filled voter information to discard them, the news release stated. A law passed in the state last year prohibits officials from accepting absentee ballot request forms that are partially or wholly filled out, the Carolina Journal reported.
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