Elections Q&A

Local Board of Elections director answers commonly asked questions

As the Nov. 5 general election approaches, Duplin Journal will feature a series of Q&As with Duplin County Board of Elections Director Carrie Sullivan.

If you haven’t registered to vote yet, you can still do so until Friday, Oct. 11. Eligible individuals who miss this deadline can register and vote during the early voting period from Oct. 17 through Nov. 2. Absentee ballots must be requested by 5 p.m. on Oct. 29. They must be received in the office by 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 5 (close of polls).

With presidential elections less than 4 weeks away, what are the main challenges ahead?

The main challenge right now is keeping voters properly informed. There is quite a bit of misinformation out there right now. We are making sure that we are listening to voters’ concerns and addressing them. The biggest confusion so far has been third-party companies sending out mailers. If the address on the outside of the envelope does not say Duplin County Board of Elections, it is most likely coming from a third-party organization. We ask that if any voters have questions about their registration status, they reach out to us in the office.

How does the election office stop someone from illegally voting in the name of a voter who has died or moved but has not yet been removed from the rolls? How does your office keep voter rolls clean?

Voter ID is required in North Carolina; that is the most important safeguard to keep someone from voting under anyone’s name other than their own. Keeping voter rolls clean is a year-round task. Some tasks are performed daily, while others are performed weekly. Duplin County continues to perform all required list maintenance procedures which ensures that all deceased voters are removed in a timely manner.

With so many registration drives all over the county, can you explain how the process works? Are those registrations submitted to the local Board of Elections for vetting? What happens to voter registration forms that don’t provide a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number?

Registrations from registration drives are submitted either directly to our office or to the State Board of Elections. All registrations get scanned into our system and processed as they are received. If there is any significant change noted on a registration from a registration drive to an existing voter, we send out a letter to notify the voter before any changes are made to their record. If someone does not put a license number or the last four of their social security on the application, that registration will then be put into a queue in our system, and an incomplete letter is issued to the registrant notifying them that their registration is not complete until they provide that information to our office.

How do officials know that a legitimate voter has cast their ballot? Are there gaps in the chain of custody?

All methods of voting require a photo ID. When appearing to vote in person, a precinct official will check that ID to make sure that the picture resembles the person presenting to vote. In terms of Absentee by Mail, voters also must mail in a copy of their ID, sign their envelope, and have either two witnesses or one notary sign off and attest to that voter filling out that ballot and sealing it into the envelope. When absentee ballots arrive in our office, they are stamped with the date they are received, they are electronically checked into the system, and assigned to an Absentee Board Meeting date. They are then put away in a secure, locked area until they are to be reviewed by the multi-partisan Board of Elections. Absentee ballots remain sealed until the Board is ready to review them at their Absentee Meeting. We take chain of custody very seriously and ensure that we follow the laws set forth by the State of North Carolina and the Constitution.

For more information, call the Duplin County Board of Elections Office at 910-296-2170.