In early October, Chatham County voter Deborah Miller received her and her husband’s absentee ballots in the mail. Miller set the ballots aside for later, until she saw a post on NextDoor that caught her attention. Some of her neighbors had also received their ballots, but there was an issue. The mailing envelope used to return the absentee ballot was already sealed. 

After checking her ballot, which was already sealed, and her husband’s, which was not, Miller called the Chatham County Board of Elections. 

County elections officials confirmed that already-sealed ballot envelopes were being sent out, but that the reason was innocuous. 

“It was sporadic, and it was due primarily to humidity,” Miller said, recalling what elections officials told her. “It was not necessarily humidity here, but humidity in the processing plant where they were printed and the packets (were) put together.” 

Chatham County Elections Director Pandora Paschal said she thinks the issue arose with the first batch of absentee ballots sent out on Sept. 24, as the rain from Tropical Storm Helene came in. She wasn’t sure how many voters were impacted, but said it wasn’t a “whole lot of people.”

Neighboring Randolph County has experienced a similar issue, said elections director Melissa Kirstner. 

About a dozen voters have called the Randolph County Board of Elections office about the issue, Kirstner said. She said rain at the time a batch of ballots are sent out may contribute to the issue. 

Kirstner added that humidity has sealed ballots before, most recently a few years ago. 

The North Carolina State Board of Elections has provided county boards of elections guidance when dealing with sealed ballot envelopes. 

State Board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said voters can use a letter opener or scissors to unseal ballot envelopes that arrived already sealed. 

In North Carolina, absentee ballot packages include two envelopes: an inner envelope that holds the ballot and has a copy of photo identification or an exception form attached to it, as well as an outer envelope pre-addressed to the proper county board of elections, meant to shield personal information during the mailing process. 

If voters can still seal one of those envelopes, they may seal that one and tape the other closed. 

Some counties, including Chatham County, have advised impacted voters to also include an initialed or signatured note of some kind affirming that they are the ones who have unsealed and resealed the ballot envelope. 

Paschal said notes are not required, but are helpful. 

“I felt like if they added just a little short note, just to say, ‘I put tape on the envelope’ and then put their signature, it covers them and it covers us,” she said. 

“People read all kinds of things into stuff these days. So nobody’s ballot would be discounted because they put tape on their envelope, especially if they have everything else that’s correct.” 

If voters cannot seal either envelope, State Board General Counsel Paul Cox said voters should ask to have their ballots spoiled, or canceled, and re-issued. 

“Whenever a county board spoils an existing ballot, it means that ballot will not be able to be counted,” Cox said. “The system won’t allow it to be counted. So that means when a new ballot is issued for that voter, that voter can receive it and vote it and turn it back in, just like any normal absentee ballot.” 

Brinson Bell said the issue is not “a rampant situation.” 

While Chatham County now has a disclaimer on its elections website, other counties do not. Voters who call their elections office will be instructed how to work through the situation, based on state guidance. 

Miller is still concerned that not all confused voters will do what she did, and may instead be discouraged from voting by the sealed envelopes. 

“I worry that people who get that envelope will not know what to do. They won’t have seen anything on NextDoor, they won’t necessarily reach out and find out what to do,” she said. 

“…There’s so many more steps to (absentee voting) that I worry whether people will just give up on it and say, ‘No, this is too hard. Voting in person is not this difficult.’”

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-with-a-sign-4669113/