Opinion: 'Amazing.' Cumberland and NC election workers hustle to get military ballots out
Absentee ballots started going out to our military men and women serving overseas and other voters abroad — and they left Cumberland County in time to meet a federal deadline for military personnel.
This is all good because it is not an overstatement to say that what the military does, and has done, secures Americans’ right to a free vote in the first place.
Overseas military personnel to receive ballots requested — in time to satisfy U.S. law
All mail-in ballots that had been requested by service personnel overseas were sent out Friday by the Cumberland County Board of Elections, according to a county news release. The rest of the mail-in ballots requested so far, including for those who use the Visually Impaired Portal, were to start going out by Tuesday, a date set by the N.C. State Board of Elections.
The release states: “This schedule ensures that North Carolina will meet the federal law requirement to distribute ballots to voters under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act by the 45th day before the election – Sept. 21.”
New-ballot turnaround in Cumberland, elsewhere was faster than some expected
The original date the state had set for elections officials to start sending out absentee mail-in ballots was Sept. 6, and Cumberland County officials say they were prepared to do just that. But our elections staff and their counterparts in other counties had to scramble after a court decision delayed the mail-out so former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy’s name could be removed from the ballot.
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Many people at the time, including the state elections director, worried the process might not resolve for two weeks or even longer, which would have forced the state to seek a federal waiver for military absentee ballots.
Irene Grimes, chair of the county elections board, said the knows the fast turnaround was not easy. The ballot change occurred at the same time elections workers were training between 800 and 1,000 precinct officials. She praised the elections staff under director Angie Amaro at the headquarters on Fountainhead Lane in downtown Fayetteville.
“I know the amount of work and the time that these people down there have put in,” she said. “They’ve put in a Herculean effort, they have worked every day, including weekends.
“So the fact that they’ve got it done is amazing.”
Anyone can request an absentee mail-in ballot. Here's how
Statewide, about 8% of absentee ballot requests have been from military and overseas voters, the county release stated.
Any registered voter can vote via absentee ballot after submitting a request at votebymail.ncsbe.gov. The deadline is Oct. 29 but elections officials in the release encouraged people to request ballots sooner rather than later (a suggestion I co-sign.) The ballots must be completed and returned to Fountainhead Lane by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5.
The news release detailed the scope of elections workers efforts statewide since Sept. 6: “Through Thursday, more than 166,000 voters — including more than 13,600 military and overseas voters — have requested ballots in North Carolina. During the past week, State and County Board of Elections staff, and voting system and printing vendors, have worked to code, design, proof and print new ballots without the “We The People” Party line. Staff have worked to devise contingency plans to ensure ballots are delivered as soon as practicable.”
Overseas military have the option of an online portal — and it's popular
The work will continue. Nearly 90% of women and men serving overseas vote via an online portal for electronic delivery, and staff worked over the weekend and through this week to prepare it, the release stated.
“This schedule is only possible because of the hard work of elections professionals across this state that will continue throughout the next week,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said in the news release. “Because of them, we expect to meet the federal deadline for ballot delivery, and North Carolinians can finally start voting in this important election.”
That is all good news.
Opinion Editor Myron B. Pitts can be reached at [email protected] or 910-486-3559.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Opinion: Fayetteville election workers beat ballot change challenge