The Guilford County Board of Elections Office is one of the hardest working departments in Guilford County government, and, for the last few weeks, elections staff has been working like dogs to prepare ballots and send them out, which they were set to do on Friday, Sept. 6. However, the NC Court of Appeals slammed the breaks on that fast-moving train right before ballots were to be sent out.
Now all the work, time and money that’s gone into that effort may have been for nothing.
The NC Court of Appeals directed election offices not to send out the ballots and instead ordered them to make new ballots with the names of the We The People Party candidates removed, including former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his vice-presidential running mate Nicole Ann Shanahan.
The same story holds true for all the counties in the state, which collectively have already prepared and printed approximately three million ballots.
Just before elections officials across the state were set to mail out requested absentee ballots as required by North Carolina law, The NC Court of Appeals overturned a Wake County Superior Court ruling that had denied the request from the We The People Party to remove Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s name, along with other We The People party candidates, from ballots.
The State Board of Elections appealed Friday’s order by the NC Court of Appeals. The Board of Elections appeal was filed with the NC Supreme Court Friday afternoon.
The state board said in a press release that elections staff would work through the weekend to begin the process of coding new ballots without Kennedy’s name and providing proofs of the new ballots to county boards of elections for review.
The State Board has asked the Supreme Court for an expedited decision so counties won’t have to spend any more money preparing and printing new ballots if the State Board is successful in its appeal.
In North Carolina, county boards of elections are responsible for ballot-related costs.
Guilford County Board of Elections Director Charlie Collicutt stated after the decision that, as it looks now, he and his staff are “going to have to start all over again.”
He said that all the work the department has put into preparing ballots, printing them and stuffing them in envelopes to send out may have been for nothing.
The matter is complicated by the fact that Guilford County has many different ballot styles and each one of those will have to be altered, reproofed and reprinted.
A ballot style, as noted by the state Board of Elections is “the specific combination of contests on the ballot that correspond to a voter’s voting jurisdictions (e.g., county commissioner district, state legislative districts, congressional district, etc.”
There are over 2,300 ballot styles across the state and about 60 in Guilford County alone.
The ballots had already been printed and paid for and were “ready for the mailroom,” Collicutt said.
Collicutt also said he didn’t have an exact estimate of the cost, but he did say that counties across the state will have to pay the bill if the ruling stands.
It will no doubt involve a huge amount of overtime pay in all 100 counties in addition to all the other costs.
Kennedy, who ended his third-party presidential campaign in late August and endorsed Donald Trump, is having his name removed from ballots in some states like North Carolina that are considered battleground states.
He believes having his name on the ballot could take votes away from Trump.
On Thursday, Aug 29, the NC State Board of Elections determined that it was simply too late in the process to remove the We The People nominees. So the State Board rejected the request to remove its nominees from the November general election ballots.
The Board determined it wouldn’t be practical to reprint the millions of ballots that have already been printed and try to meet the state laws’ election deadlines.
After the request was made, the State Board of Elections scheduled an emergency meeting on August 29 to consider the request from the Kennedy campaign. A vote of a majority of the Board determined it was too late in the process to change course and prepare and print new ballots across the state.
“Estimates from the vendor that prints ballots for most NC counties were that the time it would take to prepare and print new ballots would leave most North Carolina counties without ballots until mid-September at the earliest and lead to significant additional costs,” a statement from the board reads.
It adds, “There is no deadline in state law for when a party may withdraw its presidential nominee and have their name replaced or removed from the ballot. However, under state law, absentee ballots must go out by Sept. 6 to voters who have already requested them, including military and overseas voters who may need more time to return their ballots. And under a provision in the North Carolina Administrative Code, when a political party wishes to change its presidential nominee close to an election but before ballots go out, the State Board must determine whether it is practical to reprint ballots at that point.”
About 95 of the 100 counties in the state have ballots that had been approved for printing, and at least 80 counties had printed ballots. The other 20 counties were already far along in the process and have also put a great deal of time, effort and money into the preparation.
Collicutt knows how much work goes into the preparation of ballots for a national election but other people may not realize how involved the process is.
Once the ballot content is finalized, election employees across the state work with ballot printing vendors to generate electronic proofs of the ballots. Elections staff then has to examine every ballot style created.
Ballots must be proofread very carefully because, unlike say, a typo in a newspaper, a small mistake on an election ballot can be utterly disastrous.
The next step is for staff to carefully proof all aspects of the ballot prepared by the printing vendors. Then the county Board of Elections must approve the ballots for printing. They also test the ballots to ensure they can be read by ballot tabulators
After the ballots pass this test, the vendors print the physical ballots and ship them to each county board office. Staff at the county board then has to package those ballots into outgoing absentee ballot envelopes so they will be ready to be mailed to voters when the start of voting begins – which was to be September 6 in 2024 for the upcoming election.
As it stands now, the ballot process would essentially start again from the beginning.
North Carolina General Statues state that, when determining the results in a general election, the candidates having the highest number of votes for each office shall be declared elected to the office – and It also requires that the election abstract show the votes for each candidate and ballot proposal on the official ballot in the election.
Which is what the elections board is determined to do if the Supreme Court decides in its favor.
“There is no comparable law that directs county boards of elections not to count a vote when a political party has withdrawn its presidential nominee’s name after it is too late to reprint the ballots,” a statement from the NC Board of Elections reads. “Accordingly, votes for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in the general election will be tabulated and reported alongside the votes for other candidates in the presidential contest,”
On Friday, the following email was sent to all boards of elections in the state:
“The Court of Appeals just issued an order reversing the denial of the
restraining order that was requested by Kennedy. It is attached. The court has ordered a further pause to ballot distribution. Do not send any ballots out today.
The court has also ordered that the We The People party’s ballot line be removed (including Kennedy and Shanahan). Obviously, this will be a major undertaking for everyone. Our attorneys are reviewing the order and determining how to move forward. No decision has been made on whether this ruling will be appealed.
Bottom line: continue to hold your outgoing absentee ballots-both military and overseas citizen ballots, and ballots for civilian voters. We will update you immediately with any further developments.”
Now all eyes are on the NC Supreme Court.
Collicutt said there are many different ways this could go from here.
I guess conservstives don’t mind last minute changes to voting policy. Who knew? Lol
You mean like the last minute decision for Harris to run?
Was more making fun of conservatives claiming Covid voting rule changes in 2020 should be treated as cheating by Dems (which I beleive is BS).
Of course you would think it was BS, Chris.
I guess not. Disappointing. Very similar to the Dems, as when Josh Stein willingly gave in to Eric Holder’s group which challenged NC absentee ballot rules regarding postage requirements, witness requirements, the deadline by which election officials must receive mailed ballots, and the rules and procedures around signature matching……using Covid 19 as an excuse. Why covid would uniquely hinder mailing in a ballot never made sense to me. While we accept “massive” fraud does not exist, there has been some level of fraud, as exhibited in the NC 9th district ballot harvesting case. And, it doesn’t take massive fraud to turn an election (Dems certainly remember Bush winning Florida by 538 votes!). Absentee ballots are the easiest form of voting to tamper with. It wasn’t Repubs looking to loosen the controls or security of these ballots.
Now Ken how dare you bring up those ole pesky hanging chads. It didn’t hurt that
Jeb Bush was the attorney general of Florida at the time.
Trump lost by over a million votes and over 70 electoral votes. It would have taken a massive amount fraud to swing that many fraudulent voters. Get over it. He lost. He is a Loser. He will most likely lose again.
Out election system is fine. Voter ID laws have improved it but make no real difference but if it makes you feel better.
Please, Chris, this has nothing to do with legislative policy as in 2020.
One more reason for a NATIONAL VOTING DAY, with few exceptions for absentee ballots.
Exactly!!!!!
Have you written a letter to your Raleigh reps and the NC Board of Elections requesting a NATIONAL VOTING DAY? If not, what is the expectation that such a Day will happen?
Election Day should be a National Holiday with polls open from 6am to 9pm, paper ballots and absentee ballots for disabled voters, voters over a certain age like 65 or older and the military and out of state students or government employees unable to vote in their home districts.
Ballots should be printed by a banknote printing company with security features and serial numbers so they can be tracked to each voting precincts.
Along with photo ID and proof of citizenship the elections would be secure and if everything is counted right after the election, and not over a weeks long election “season”, the results will be quickly and securely available.
Agree 100%. Let’s make it happen through communications to Raleigh.
I feel this will be a golden opportunity for fraud.
NO mail ballots. Except for citizens out of the country, and those who cannot physically go to the polls.
What, you want a doctors note? Howndonypu validate “cant make it to the polls”. What about people who have to work two jobs and can’t afford time off to vote.
Make it easy to vote. Doesn’t create opportunity for fraud. Heck you have the ID law now. Conservstives just sound like a bunch of sore loser snowflakes.
Think I’ll wait until November to decide who the snowflakes are.
People who work two jobs? Really? Democrats are always looking for ways to put a finger on the scale. Sometimes Democrats use their entire hand to tip the scale. That’s the way thugs work.
That makes sense!
I guess far left progressives don’t mind last minute changes to voting policy. It was handed to their canidate after the village idiot folded , so no problem. LOL.
Do it right no matter what the cost
Partisan politics run amok. Voters in North Carolina who identify themselves as unaffiliated (which means they do not wish to be included as members of either party) now outnumber the voters registered as either Democrats or Republicans. They will, however, have no say in any of this since the higher Courts include no “unaffiliated” members. But since “unaffiliated” voters are also a plurality of the taxpayers, they will bear a plurality of the unnecessary costs. We once fought a revolution against “taxation without representation.” And what did we get? Professional politicians wasting other peoples’ money.
As I’ve said before, make Election Day a national holiday. Do away with this ‘early voting’ nonsense. Also institute required ID in the form of state of federal picture ID.
And before you whiners start, state issued ID is free.
Please see my comment to American believer.
And you HAVE TO SHOW AN ID TO GO TO THE DOCTOR, GET SOCIAL SECURITY, GET ON A PLANE. OR INTO THE DEMOCRAT CONVENTION! So don’t give me any excuses about the poor old people who can’t get an ID !
Well, I’m a Conservative. I belong to NEITHER party. I consider this to be an absurd crock of – – – you know what. It’s a totally unnecessary expense to the taxpayers, delay to far-absentee voters, like those in the overseas military, and I frankly don’t believe that it will make a whit of difference as to how anyone votes. I don’t think that RFK was going to have much impact anyway other than to get a few “protest votes” from people who weren’t going to vote for either of the major party candidates in the first place. Those people can just write-in Elmer Fudd or Yosimite Sam.
I’ve seen both Trump and Kamala in action. I’ve seen how the party that claims to be “saving our (non-existent) Democracy” used very non-democratic means to anoint a candidate that nobody voted for. I will vote for NO Democrats, at any level, regardless of whether RFK is on the ballot or not.
I would think everyone would want to have a ballot that is accurate, rather than having people potentially voting for someone who isn’t even running.
Agree.
Of course the Democrats want Kennedy on the Ballot as a vote for Kennedy is just another vote for Kamala! A much more important National Holiday than Martin Luther King Holiday, President’s Day, or Juneteenth would be a National Patriotic Holiday celebrating American’s privilege of the right to vote in a fair election. Make it a family event for all families to bring their kids to the polls with hot dogs and celebrations in Honor of a Once Great Nation!
As slow as the lines move, a properly written ballot, a box of Sharpies, a couple of cases of blank paper, and a couple of Xerox machines would work just fine. I agree with Alan Marshall, about making election day a holiday, maybe make it fall on a Friday or a Monday and make it a long voting weekend if needed, but do it in person.
NOW we are concerned about the COST of reprinting the ballots??
NOW we are concerned about the delay in sending out ballots??
Really laughable to observe the sudden panties-in-a-bunch, pearl clinging cries of demoncrats. This is the very same bunch that stalled voter approved ID laws among numerous other delay tactics used in past elections.
Does Not Matter;
A fedgov judge has ruled on the matter, so MAYBE this time rules will be followed.