news-record.com

WENTWORTH - Some voters were erroneously given provisional ballots at early voting sites, according to the Rockingham County Board of Elections.

As of Monday afternoon, there were 79 people who had voted with provisional ballots at four one-stop locations in the county, said Tina Cardwell, deputy director of the local elections board. Cardwell said that some of those people should have been able to same-day register and vote.

Among the reasons provisional ballots are given is when there is no record of the voter's registration.

The issue came to the attention of the elections board
Oct. 21 after Cardwell said she had a routine conversation with an official at the Mayodan early voting site.

Cardwell said there may have been some confusion among one-stop staff about the new procedure this year that allows people to register and vote at the same time at early voting locations. Previous practice both during early voting and on Election Day has been to provide provisional ballots to those people whose registrations could not be found.

Voters received provisional ballots at one-stops in Eden, Reidsville, Wentworth and Mayodan. Those ballots will be counted Election Day instead of being counted early like the other early-voting ballots.

Those who voted with provisional ballots are assigned a number and given a phone number they can call after the canvass to confirm that their vote was counted, Cardwell said.

Anyone with questions about voting procedures is asked to call the elections board at 342-8107.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com