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Cartoon by Liza Donnelly, New Yorker cartoonist and creator of the film Women Laughing. Used with permission.
Board of Elections Observations
Buncombe County Absentee Ballots: At a March meeting, the Buncombe County Board considered the fate of 181 absentee ballots, most of which were mailed but received after 7:30 pm on Election Day, the statutory deadline. Prior to Primary Election Day, staff checked the post office box daily and three times on March 3. Staff also checked the post office box daily following the Primary until the March 13 Canvass.
Because they arrived after the deadline, none of the 181 ballots were counted. The rejected ballots accounted for 22 percent of the 831 absentee ballots returned to the Election Services Office. Of the total rejected, 112 had postmarks on or before February 25. In addition, 4 absentee ballots were received from voters who subsequently voted in person; 1 had a cure pending but not completed by May 13; 1 ballot envelope hand delivered to the office contained 2 ballots, which could not be counted. The condition of the remaining 3 ballots was not mentioned.
At its April meeting the Board reviewed the current budget and strategies to reduce the total by $50,000; discussed data requests from the State Auditor’s Office; reviewed 30 challenges to individual voters who may have died; voted to move to a full hearing on the 30 challenges; and providing badge access to much of the Election Services office space, although not areas where ballots or voting machines are stored.
Madison County: At its April meeting, the Madison County Board reviewed the current budget and hired a new Deputy Director.
Interested in observing your county’s Board of Elections? Click here.
State Board of Election adopts rules to identify potential non-citizens
The State Board received over 15,000 comments when it proposed rules in March to compare voters’ names, dates of birth, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers to the information in the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which may provide information on possible noncitizens. The State Board recently entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for this purpose. The rules outline a process to remove the names of possible non-citizens from voter rolls. The changes were presented as a way to help ensure that non-citizens do not vote (something which is already illegal). The contents of the comments were not summarized for the public or the Board.
The Board also advanced proposed rules to make it easier for North Carolina county boards of election to throw out ballots of people who don’t show photo ID when they vote but who choose instead to complete a Photo ID exception form. The proposed rules reduce the number of Board Member votes from 5 to 3 to reject a provisional ballot based on false information. A majority on the county boards, on which Republicans currently hold three of five seats, could determine that voters were lying and reject their ballots.
The partisan makeup of the State and County Boards of Elections is based on the political party of the chief official overseeing elections. Formerly these Boards were under oversight of the Governor, a Democrat. A change by the General Assembly moved oversight from the Governor to the State Auditor, a Republican. The State board and all county Boards now consist of 3 Republican members and 2 Democratic members.
At the same meeting, the State Board proposed rules to eliminate the use of bullhorns or other amplified sound outside of polling locations during voting hours. One board member said the proposed rule would likely be difficult for chief judges to implement, if, for example, the sound came from the band practice of a school serving as a polling site. It might also curtail efforts by local DJs to host dance parties near polling sites to enhance voter turnout.
The vote to move both proposed rules forward was 3 Republican Members to 2 Democratic Members. By the same type of vote, the State Board decided against developing rules to help County Officials know how to respond to the possible presence of federal agents at the polls this November and the potential seizure of ballots, which has happened in neighboring Georgia.
Update: Federal bills requiring proof of citizenship to vote
In March, after two weeks of open debate on the Senate floor, Senators left town without passing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act of 2026 delivering a major defeat for anti-voter lawmakers in Washington. Together with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act of 2025, which has also not passed the Senate, these bills would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to vote in person, to request an absentee ballot, and to vote by mail in federal elections, among other things. In addition, these bills would prohibit absentee mail-in voting. These bills which are opposed by many groups, including the LWV US, have not gone away but are not under as active consideration as they were last month. However, the Act of 2026 could still be brought to the floor for further debate. We may all need to contact our Senators again to oppose these bills.
Registration Training – May 6 at 5:30 pm
We will hold our first in-person training of the year at the North Asheville Library program room at 1030 Merrimon Avenue, Asheville. The training is open to anyone interested in learning how to register voters in NC. It is a requirement for registering at LWVAB registration events. Hope to see you there.
Interested in other forms of Voter Outreach?
The League of Women Voters Asheville Buncombe collaborates with WNCVotes!--a nonpartisan coalition of community organizations and individuals working together to increase voter turnout in Western North Carolina. The Coalition’s mission is to engage, educate and empower sporadic voters and those who are often left out and left behind.
Learn more about planned events, at the WNC Votes Coalition website, including Canvasing, Voter Registration/Tabling, Youth Outreach, Hispanic-Latino Outreach, Community Organizing, regardless of your organizational affiliation. The Coalition could use help with recruiting more people for the individual Outreach Teams, especially bilingual volunteers willing to work with Hispanic-Latino Outreach.
Voter Outreach – Registration Events
Thanks to Rebecca Harris, Elaine and George Elam, and others who showed up at various MANNA sites in April, we were able to engage folks in discussion about registration and elections. We still have openings for Enka Middle School, Aston Park Towers, Erwin Middle School, Bartlett Arms Apartments (2 events); Rock Hill Baptist Church in Shiloh, ABCCM West, WNC CHS at AB Tech and, Pisgah View Apartments. Find details and sign up here.
Watch this newsletter for information on more events. If you have ideas for where we should set up a registration table, please let us know.
Voter Outreach – Next Meetings
The in person training on May 6 will take the place of our May meeting.
Our June meeting will be held on Thursday, June 11,
at the North Asheville Library program room at 1030 Merrimon Avenue, Asheville. (Note time change.) Sign up here.
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