Absentee ballots from Black voters in NC rejected at a higher rate than whites’
Absentee ballots from African American voters are being rejected at nearly triple the rate as those from white voters, according to data from North Carolina’s State Board of Elections.
The finding was first reported by the analytical site 538 on Friday, which happens to be National Black Voter Day.
Also Friday, the state Democratic Party and campaign arms of the national party filed a lawsuit claiming state rules on absentee ballots effectively disenfranchised voters who may inadvertently make a mistake in filling out their ballot.
“We are in the middle of a pandemic that makes voting by mail a critical, safe way to access the ballot for many,” Cheri Bustos, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement.
“North Carolinians should have confidence that their vote will be counted, and our leaders should be removing bureaucratic technicalities and unconstitutional hurdles that make that harder.”
Of the more than 17,500 ballots returned by Black voters through Thursday, 815 were considered “spoiled” or rejected because of incomplete information from witnesses. That’s a rejection rate of 4.6%.
By comparison, about 1,200 of the 75,600 ballots from white voters were rejected for the same reasons. That’s a rate of 1.6%.
State election officials had no explanation for the discrepancy Friday, though 538 reported that there have been similar patterns in other states.
“We have a responsibility to really help people be a little more educated about that ballot,” U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, a Charlotte Democrat, told the Observer. “You don’t want to think your ballot counts and then it doesn’t.”
Earlier this month an Observer analysis of election data found that in the 2016 and 2018 general elections as well as the March primary, nearly 16,000 absentee ballots were rejected in North Carolina for missing signatures, deadlines or other required information.
Patrick Gannon, spokesman for the state elections board, said the coronavirus pandemic has led to a flood of absentee voters, many voting that way for the first time.
Through Thursday the state had almost 900,000 requests for absentee ballots.
“We encourage all voters to ensure that all required fields are complete on the absentee ballot return envelope before returning the ballot to their county board of elections,” Gannon said. “We continue to look at ways to ensure that required fields are easily identifiable on the envelope.”
If a ballot is rejected, county elections officials send the voter a new one. The state board advised local election officials this week that they could highlight with a marker the lines needed for witness information.
There are also new protocols designed to reduce the number of absentee ballots that aren’t counted. That’s one of several changes designed to facilitate voting during the pandemic.
A new portal on the state board website lets voters request absentee ballots electronically.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris was scheduled to be featured with Adams and other Black leaders on a virtual North Carolina stop of the campaign’s “Turn Up and Turn Out the Vote Bus Tour” Friday night.
“Every vote must count,” Adams said. “This is the most important election of our time. We have to make sure we turn out every African American vote — but it’s got to be counted.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Absentee ballots from Black voters in NC rejected at a higher rate than whites’."
