FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – The Cumberland County Board of Elections is sharing information from the State Board of Elections to address recurring social media posts that claim a ballot is invalid if an election worker writes on it. This claim is false.

Similar posts have circulated in recent years and have resurfaced in several North Carolina counties. Election officials encourage residents not to share false or misleading information about election processes.

Election workers may write on ballots for several reasons required by state law. These notations do not affect whether a ballot is counted.

Examples include:

• Writing a number on ballots of by-mail or early voters. This is a special number assigned to each ballot and voter. It allows election officials to retrieve and not count a ballot if necessary. This could be due to a voter challenge, such as if the voter dies before Election Day or votes more than once (N.C.G.S. § 163-166.45).

• Writing an early voter’s precinct on their ballot. This allows officials to sort ballots back into the proper precincts after the election for reporting and data purposes, as required by law (N.C.G.S. § 163 132.5G). Early voters may cast their ballot at any early voting site in the County, creating the need to sort ballots by precinct after the election.

• Writing the precinct name on ballots cast on Election Day for post-election sorting. Elections workers may also write notations on provisional ballots.

• Writing a “P” for provisional or “A” for absentee in the box in the upper left corner of the ballot. This helps election workers identify absentee or provisional ballots inadvertently inserted into a tabulator.

Absentee and provisional ballots are sealed in envelopes and reviewed by county boards of elections before being counted.

Stray marks on a ballot do not prevent the ballot from being counted, as long as the bars on the margins of the ballot and the selection ovals are not affected. Tabulators use the bars and the shading of ovals to determine the selections on that ballot.

For accurate election information, visit ncsbe.gov or contact the Cumberland County Board of Elections at 910-678-7733 or cumberlandcountync.gov/elections.

For more information about early voting, visit ncsbe.gov/voting/vote-early-person.

Cumberland County Board of Elections is located in the E. Newton Smith Center at 227 Fountainhead Lane, Fayetteville. Normal office hours are Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.