Despite the efforts by foreign nations and bad actors to sow chaos and confusion in North Carolina’s elections, the state’s voting system remains fair, safe and secure, leaders of a cross-partisan group assured local voters Wednesday night.
The North Carolina Network for Fair, Safe and Secure Elections brought its Trusted Elections Tour to Elizabeth City, hosting its 17th town hall of the year on the Elizabeth City State University campus. The network says the tours, seven more of which are planned across the state before the November election, are designed to provide the state’s voters with information about the electoral process, build trust in the state’s voting system and strengthen civil discourse.
Approximately 20 people, including four ECSU students, attended Wednesday’s town hall held in the university’s Ridley Student Center.
Panelists Robert Orr and Jennifer Roberts, senior advisers with the North Carolina Network for Fair, Safe & Secure Elections, fielded questions from the audience along with Kellie Harris Hopkins, director of the Beaufort County Board of Elections.
After one attendee asked about how ballots are counted and votes collected at polling sites across the state, the panelists explained all voting systems in the state use paper ballots. All ballots are marked by hand or with a ballot-marking device, with hand-marking the most common method, Hopkins explained.
One woman in the audience asked if the U.S. Postal Services’ slow delivery of mail would be a concern for voters waiting to receive registration cards or absentee ballots.
“We are working with the U.S. Postal Service because their delivery rates are a concern,” Hopkins replied. “We are trying to get that stuff expedited. We have to have them in by election day. If you want you can FedEx that absentee ballot or drop it off.”
Under current state law, the deadline to request an absentee ballot for the Nov. 5 election is 5 p.m. the Tuesday before election day. All absentee ballots must be received by 7:30 p.m. on election day.
Orr, a former justice on the N.C. Supreme Court and former NC Court of Appeals judge, told the audience the state’s elections system is designed with security in mind.
“The system is set up so that it will catch it if someone tries to vote twice, for instance,” he said. “The system gives the Board of Elections plenty of information. If you vote early, it will be marked as such.”
Among other topics, the panelists also discussed voter registration rules, acceptable forms of photo ID for voting, and the absentee and provisional ballot voting processes. They also discussed disinformation and how it can affect the voting process.
Roberts, a former mayor of Charlotte, said voters need to be aware of “bad actors” who are trying to disrupt the state’s orderly voting processes.
“There are a lot of bad actors trying to confuse you or foreign actors who try to create chaos,” she said.
Roberts warned that artificial intelligence can also be misused to confuse voters.
“The misuse of AI (artificial intelligence) is a concern especially when some people don’t take the time to verify the sources of email and text messages that may suddenly claim a change in voting hours, dates or locations,” she said. “Don’t trust a bot indicating there are places to vote other than the sites on your Board of Elections’ website. One of the reasons we are doing this tour is so you know what a government site looks like.”
Hopkins added that county or state elections officials will never seek personal information from a voter.
“You will never get a text message from the county or state Board of Elections requesting personal information from you,” she said. “If something sounds strange like that check it out. Contact your Board of Elections office or their website. We are worried about AI being used in that way.”
Orr believes the Trusted Elections Tour’s town halls have been informative for attendees. He himself has learned more about provisional voting through his own participation, he said.
Orr said while there have been changes to voting rules and changes to sites for early voting, many elections rules haven’t changed.
“To vote, you have to be 18, a U.S. citizen,” he said. “You must have lived in the location where you are attempting to vote for the last 30 days but (be) registered in time. For students who are not from this county, you have a decision to make: You can register in this county if that’s your place of residency or return to the place where your family lives and you are already registered to vote.”
Benjamin England, a 20-year-old ECSU student from Connecticut, said he enjoyed the Trusted Elections Tour town hall and found it informative. One thing he said he learned is that the Pasquotank County Board of Elections is located on Parkview Drive, just a few blocks away from the university campus.
“I did think it was interesting, there were good questions,” he said of the town hall. “I heard about their concerns about AI (artificial intelligence) and the possibility of foreign influences (on elections). All the procedures (used to safeguard elections) in North Carolina seem more in depth.”
England, who said he’s eligible to vote for the first time this year, said he found out about the town hall via email notices through the campus email system.
But six students mingling in the hallway nearest the room where the town hall was located said they were unaware of the event. Five of them said they are unaware of the multiple forms of photo ID that are acceptable for voting or about ways to vote other than in person.
Roberts said audiences for the town halls have been small- to medium-size gatherings, which she said are suitable settings for voters. Other tour stops have included Shelby, Charlotte, Boone, Pinehurst, Salisbury, Durham, Raleigh and Rocky Mount.
“It was a very engaged audience tonight,” she said. “What we hope is people will tell friends what they have learned. They will realize we have dedicated election workers in North Carolina who are focused on getting an accurate count.”
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