Buncombe County – Last week, the Tribune reported on what an election poll worker called a “glitch” in the early voting system of Buncombe County. The Buncombe County Board of Elections disputed the claim, saying, “If you were to publish an article that there was a glitch that allowed people to vote more than once, that would not be factual.”
However, just days after the deadline for our last issue, the board of elections set up a conference call with the Tribune. There, election board staff members Corinne Duncan, Neggy Fox, and Kassi Day went over the process and verified what Kay Olsen, an early voting precinct captain, described to the Tribune as a “glitch” does indeed exist. Regardless, they also said such a double vote would be caught by the end of that day’s voting. While Duncan never called it a glitch, she did say it could happen during early voting.
Early voting process
All 100 counties in the state use the same early voting system (NCSBE SOSA). During early voting, 12 voting sites allow voters from any of the county’s precincts to vote at any of the sites. To keep up with who has voted, there are check-in computers. “Each check-in computer is a poll book, and that’s all they are. They just check in the voter and print out an authorization to vote form,” said Duncan. They are connected to the internet, which allows the check-in computer to sync up with the other check-in computers at the site and other sites every 15 minutes, which enables the system to catch anyone who has voted twice. “The computers talk to each other only every 15 minutes. On election day, they never do, ” she explained.
Voters who have obtained the authorization to vote are then allowed to vote on another machine that reads the paper ballot marked by the voter and is not connected to the internet. The machine tabulates and stores the votes. The election board also keeps the paper ballot that matches the machine vote.
She stressed that the voting machines never connect to the internet. “For only the early voting and only for the check-in computers, in this climate, I want to be careful about language, so no voting equipment, the tabulator…that never, ever touches the internet,” Duncan added.
The process for the voter, whether it is early voting or election day, is the same. The voter gives their name and address. They are marked as voted and given their ballot style. The poll worker then scans the ballot “to ensure the correct ballot is issued and then they [the voter] go and vote on the ballot.”
“Glitch” occurs within the first 15 minutes
Olsen recently came to the Tribune about what she called a ‘glitch’ she and another poll worker found during the 2020 early voting. The problem arose when a worker asked Olsen about voting. She said she would see one of the workers issuing ballots to voters. The worker did, but she messed up her ballot as she voted.
After conferring with the election board office, Olsen told the woman to return to the worker who issued the first ballot and have him re-issue the ballot. However, that worker was waiting on another voter, so she went to another poll worker to get the ballot. However, instead of being re-issued her ballot, the system gave her a new ballot. Upon recognizing the issue, the woman returned to Olsen and stated they had a problem. When Olsen called the board office back, she was told by Neggy Fox, Election Preparation Specialist, that there was a glitch in the system.
Olsen said she was told to take one of the ballots and write the word “spoiled” on it, which Olsen said is not uncommon.
In an email confirmed by the election board, Olsen wrote to Fox, saying, “During the last election, we had a teammate that decided to vote during some downtime. She went to a coworker and got a ballot. She then went to vote. She screwed up the ballot and turned around to get another ballot. By that time, the teammate she got the ballot from was busy with a voter. So, she went to another teammate and got a new ballot; like a new voter.
“We then realized she had gotten two different ballots. We called down to election headquarters and were told that there was a glitch in the system that if someone tried to vote twice in 15 minutes, the system would give out two ballots.
About 30 minutes later, Fox replied in an email, also confirmed by the election board, to Olsen, stating, “Hi Kay, The computers do not talk to each other, and we can’t change that. To avoid this from happening at all, we tell workers during training to use the same laptop that a person was voted on if they come back with an error or the worker makes an error.
“Regardless, when you audit, you would know you were one ballot off. And when we audit on the backend, we would be able to see that the voter had two voting records in conflict status. We would research and cancel one vote, so the voter can only vote one time, no matter what,” Fox added.
Catching double votes
To ensure double voting doesn’t happen, there is a system. According to Duncan, at least four different counts have to match. The number of voters who checked in to vote, the number of voters who signed in, the number of paper votes and the tabulator numbers. If any of those totals don’t match, the error must be found.
Duncan said, “Both days [early voting and election day], it is the poll worker’s responsibility as a team to ensure the voter doesn’t return. But if they did, the system would catch that, and, of course, it’s also illegal to vote twice.”
Asked, “So the situation talked about by the poll worker is possible, but it would be caught in the canvas,” Duncan replied, “It would be caught. The poll workers would catch it at the end of the night during early voting.” She said there is a double audit during early voting by the workers at the polling place and by the election board every night. She added that any true double vote would be reported to the board and the state board of elections.
In the event of a double ballot, the board would check and verify the signatures and time stamps and remove one of the ballots and report it to the local board and the state board of elections. While the ballots are kept on record, they are not available for public inspection to protect the voter’s identity and their vote.
What you may not know about early voting
When you early vote, you’re given a unique number which is then linked to your ballot number, which allows the board to ensure you don’t vote twice, but also allows those with access to the ballots to be able to go back and retrieve your vote. Why?
Besides, if there’s a question surrounding the ballot, according to Duncan, if a person dies before election day, the ballot is pulled. Asked how that check for deceased voters is accomplished, Duncan said, “So we have two reports between elections. We run them once a month, and then when voting is going on, we look at them every day.”