Mecklenburg County Board of Elections accepts 20 ballots that lacked ID, rejects 16
The Mecklenburg County Board of Elections voted to accept 20 and reject 16 ballots of voters who failed to produce an ID during Charlotte City Council’s Democratic primary, according to a spokesperson for the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections.
The Mecklenburg County Board of Elections unanimously voted to reject the ballot of one Charlotte voter who didn't have their ID. I'm told the voter filled out the photo ID exception form and checked the "other" box. In the explanation, the voter wrote "unconstitutional." The… pic.twitter.com/bPTwWJBXWA
— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) September 20, 2023
Voters without a proper ID are allowed to fill out the “Photo ID Exception Form” and cast a provisional ballot. The form includes several reasons including not being able to get an ID due to work or illness and the ID being lost or misplaced. It takes a unanimous vote from the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections to reject a ballot from counting.
Elections Director Michael Dickerson previously said he expected nearly all of the votes to count, if the voter filled out the form properly.
The 20 votes that were accepted all properly filled out the form, according to Kristin Mavromatis with the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections. Of the 16 votes that were rejected, 11 of the voters didn’t fill out the form and didn’t bring an ID to the Board of Elections office before canvass.
According to Mavromatis, one voter whose ballot was rejected selected the “other” box for their impediment to presenting an ID. This box requires voters to write the reason why they are not presenting one. According to Mavromatis, the voter wrote “unconstitutional.”
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“Our Board chose not to count it as it is constitutional as added to the NC constitution by popular vote,” Mavromatis said.
Mavromatis says for the remaining four rejected ballots, one person refused to show an ID out of protest, one tried to show a South Carolina ID and claimed “dual citizenship,” one person wrote on the form that they didn’t have time to go home and get their ID and still vote, and election officials were unable to verify the identity of one voter due to their mask.
Mavromatis says the voter who filled out the form claiming they didn’t have time to go home and get their ID was instructed he could bring his ID to the office before the canvass for his ballot to count.
The Board unanimously voted to reject the 16 votes. In total, 23,764 votes were cast.
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