Canvass won't affect local races
By Steve Herring
Published in News on November 16, 2016 10:00 AM
Approximately 764 provisional ballots were cast in Wayne County during the Nov. 8 general election.
But probably less than half will be counted -- not enough to affect any local races, Wayne County Elections Director Dane Beavers said.
The number of provisional ballots is probably around average for the state, and most of them were issued because poll workers could find no evidence of registration for the person voting, he said.
"We had 17 days of one-stop voting where you could register and vote the same day, but you can't do that on Election Day," Beavers said. "So when people come in, and we don't find them in our system, then they get a provisional ballot."
The Wayne County Board of Elections will meet Thursday to review all of the provisional ballots and make a decision on which ones are counted and which ones are not based on North Carolina elections laws, Beavers said.
"Then after they review them and make their decision they will be processed in a tabulator," Beavers said. "The results will be uploaded and shown to the public on Friday after the canvass board meeting.
"The ultimate decision is the board's so I can't say how many will be or won't be approved. We don't have any local races that will be affected by anything that we do this week."
While provisional ballots could play a role in tight races elsewhere, such as governor's race, 9 times out of 10 provisional ballots will follow the same trend as election day ballots, Beavers said.
The Thursday meeting will start at 1 p.m.
It will be followed by an 11 a.m. Friday meeting to canvass the election results.
Both are open to the public and will be held in the Board of Elections office, 209 S. William St.
"When a person votes provisional ballot they are given a pin number," Beavers said. "We give them an instruction sheet, and it has instructions on where to look online and they can track their provisional ballot online.
"It basically shows that after we have canvassed it shows whether your ballot was counted or not."
Those without Internet service can go to or call the Board of Elections office to check the status of their provisional ballot. The phone number is 919-731-1411
Also on Thursday the elections board will process all of its supplemental absentee ballots. Supplement ballots that count will mostly be military overseas, he said.
Supplement absentee ballots are ones that arrived since Election Day, Beavers said.