Old North News

For last November's general election, Brett McWhorter of Clayton, voted early on Oct. 15.

“It was the day early voting opened,” he told Old North News. “I went through the line, got my ballot, filled out my ballot and put it into the voting machine.”

Then a thought crossed McWhorter’s mind.

“How do I know if my ballot counted?” he asked the poll worker.

He said the worker pointed to a number on the voting machine, which went from 551 to 552 after McWhorter’s vote was entered.

But that did not reassure McWhorter. On Dec. 7, he called the Johnson County Board of Elections office and asked if he could actually see his ballot.

”You could hold onto if you want to,” he told the election official. “But I just want to see it. I know how I filled in the bubble in the ballot. I want to see if there is anything written on it. I just want to confirm things.”

The response he received surprised McWhorter, an information technology field employee.

“Sir, I have worked here almost 30 years,” the worker told McWhorter, he recalled. “And I have never had anyone ask me that question before.”

The worker confirmed that the ballots existed and were in the possession of the county under lock and key. 

In a year when unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud swirled across the country, McWhorter touched on a fundamental question for some voters: how do you verify that no one tampered with your ballot?

McWhorter called the North Carolina State Board of elections, where a receptionist was equally taken aback by his question.

“Sir, why would you want to see your ballot?” the receptionist asked, he recalled.

“I’m simply wondering if I had a right to,” he said. “I would like to know if I could retrieve my ballot, and if I could, what is the process?”

Turns out you can’t in North Carolina, said Patrick Gannon, public information director for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

According to state law: “Voted ballots and paper and electronic records of individual voted ballots shall be treated as confidential, and no person other than elections officials performing their duties may have access to voted ballots or paper or electronic records of individual voted ballots except by court order or order of the appropriate board of elections as part of the resolution of an election protest or investigation of an alleged election irregularity or violation.”

In other words, if an election official showed McWhorter his own ballot, they would be “committing a misdemeanor under North Carolina law,” Gannon told Old North News.

McWhorter is baffled by the restriction. He believes that allowing voters to view their own ballots would boost confidence in the electoral system.

“I know my ballot was received but I don’t know if it was counted correctly,” he said. “How do I know that it’s not in a dumpster, or shredded or manipulated in some way?”

Gannon, the elections board spokesman, said McWhorter’s ballot “was counted when he inserted it into the tabulator when he voted.”

Inspecting ballots after the election is not allowed by law.

“We have secret ballots,” Gannon said.

The ballots are saved for at least 22 months after the election, he added.