Complaints Of Intimidation On NC's First Day Of Early Voting

NORTH CAROLINA — Early in-person voting had only been open for a few hours in North Carolina Thursday when complaints of voter intimidation began in Craven County. At a polling site in the coastal county at the mouth of the Nuese River, a poll greeter — a person representing a political party who traditionally is on hand to answers questions and offer sample ballots — was crossing the line, almost literally, according to a complaint made by an election protection worker

While the female poll greeter was technically outside the 50-foot buffer zone separating campaigning and the entrance to the voting site, she was "very close" to voters waiting in line, the election protection worker told ProPublica's Electionland, which is taking tips about voting problems. In addition to the physical proximity, she was playing recordings of a Trump rally at high volume on her cell phone while "loudly exclaiming political statements," according to the complaint. "Voters coming out let Election Protector know that they considered poll greeter's actions to be potentially intimidating," the complaint said.

In Greensboro, a group of Latinx voters reported voter intimidation while waiting in line to vote at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro's Kaplan Center. The voters, who noted that they were the only Latinx voters in line at the time, said that after they spoke and laughed in Spanish, a GOP poll observer "took notes while standing over the group."

Others complained of harassment from campaigners outside polls, who flirted with the buffer zone outside the polling sites. "Someone was waving signs for a candidate and getting in people's faces inside the 50-foot zone," one person said.

The complaints highlight how state voting laws leave plenty of room for behavior that some voters find harassing.

In Craven County, for example, reports of aggressive campaigning by individuals standing on the buffer line were made about several of the county's five early voting locations on Thursday, Craven County Board of Elections Director Meloni Wray told Patch. "We have that at every election," she said. But if the actions are not impeding voters from casting their votes and are outside the 50-foot buffer zone, there's not much she can do beyond asking people to be respectful.

"I can't stop voices," she said, adding, "All I can do is ask them as a courtesy," she said. "Our hands are tied."

SEE ALSO: Armed Militias And Poll Watchers: Know The Laws In North Carolina

Aggressive campaigning at polling sites isn't the only complaint North Carolina voters have made this election cycle. Some voters in the state who opted to vote by mail reported concern about their ballots due to faulty return envelopes, according to ProPublica's tip line.

The coronavirus pandemic drastically increased interest in mail-in balloting — something about 100 million people are eligible to do without giving an "excuse" or reason.

The number of registered voters in North Carolina seeking to cast their ballot by mail in the upcoming presidential election is up about nine times the number of absentee ballot requests made compared to this time in 2016, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
As of Oct. 16, state election officials reported more than 1.3 million absentee ballots requests, representing nearly 19 percent of all North Carolina registered voters.

Because of the surge in absentee balloting throughout the state, the nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica launched its Electionland tip lines early this year. Patch has joined the coalition of newsrooms participating in the Electionland project to discover problems that prevent eligible voters from accessing or casting their ballots during or ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.

Voters in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey and Texas have complained that their return envelopes have arrived already sealed shut, leading to speculation the issue may be an unforeseen result of humidity or water damage.

In North Carolina, at least four complaints were logged about return envelopes, including a Mecklenburg County voter who told ProPublica she was concerned about the appearance of tampering after she was sent a "pre-sealed" absentee ballot return envelope.

Kristin Mavromatis, spokesperson for the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections, said she was unaware of any complaints about return ballot envelopes, but that the county election board had received about 50-100 complaints about how the long ballot was seated inside the envelope. Because of the way it was folded inside, some voters opening the ballot with a letter opener accidentally sliced it in half. While the issue was "not good," it was occurring in a small percentage of the more than 200,000 mail-in-ballots the county sent to voters, she said.

Any voter concerned about a spoiled ballot should contact their board of elections to request a new one, Mavromatis said.

Patch participated in the Electionland project in the 2016 election, working with ProPublica to bring you information on broken scanners and long lines at the polls in Brooklyn, the extension of voting hours in Durham County, North Carolina, due to technical issues, voting improprieties in Texas, an election day shooting in Azusa, California, and much more.

ProPublica wants to hear about any problems that may prevent people from voting — for example, mail ballot delivery problems, voting location changes, long lines, registration problems, purged voter rolls, broken machines and voter intimidation.

Our journalists and those at other newsrooms taking part in the Electionland project will do what we can to document and verify what readers tell us about voting and Election Day experiences. One of the most important parts of the Electionland project is to hear directly from voters. There are several ways to do that:

• SMS: Text the word VOTE, VOTA (for Spanish) or 投票 (for Chinese) to 81380 (standard text message rates apply).
• WhatsApp: Send the word VOTE, VOTA (for Spanish) or 投票 (for Chinese) to 850-909-8683.
• Facebook Messenger: Go to m.me/electionland.

Or, submit this form: