The Macon County Board of Elections dismissed candidate Bob Cook’s election protest following a hearing on May 31.
Cook filed the protest on May 27, citing a discrepancy in the reporting of the total number of ballots cast in the May 17 primary election and a different total posted on May 23. On May 17 it was reported there were 9,844 ballots cast and that number was updated on May 23 to show 8,613 total ballots.
“I filed this protest solely because the appearance of the number of ballots cast was way off,” Cook said during the hearing. Cook was a candidate in the sheriff’s race.
“You’re the guardians of one of the most prized rights that we as citizens have in our great country. We depend upon you for the absolute accuracy of the voting process,” he told the Board of Elections members during the hearing.
At the initial canvass meeting on May 27 and again at the hearing, Board of Elections Supervisor Melanie Thibault and John Noce, a security and support technician from the state Board of Elections, explained what happened.
Thibault said they noticed on election night there was a difference in the totals from the precinct tapes and what the computer generated when the numbers were entered into the Unity software that is used to transmit the results to the state. She said they did not make a statement that night because they didn’t know what was causing the problem.
Noce discovered an error in the computer software while he was in Graham County on May 20 reconciling the ballots there.
The error was a computer-generated mistake that duplicated the number of Democrat ballots to fill in a third slot, usually reserved for unaffiliated ballots. There were no unaffiliated ballots in the primary.
Once that coding for the unaffiliated ballots was removed and the reports rerun, then the numbers matched the total from the precinct tapes.
Because the coding error was in the software and not the ballot machines at the precincts, the issue did not change the number of votes for each candidate, just the ballot total.
In Noce’s 17-county district, Macon, Graham and Swain counties use the Unity software. Graham County experienced the same problem as Macon, but Swain did not. Noce said Swain might not have had a problem because perhaps there was a different coder assigned to Swain.
During the hearing, Cook said the problem should have been acknowledged that night even if to say that they didn’t know what the cause was. He said when he contacted the Board of Elections twice following the election to ask about the numbers, he got two different answers.
“When those who are questioned appear (real or not) to be hiding something by multiple answers or deflecting, it causes way more questions to be asked,” Cook stated in his protest. “I am not accusing anyone of impropriety or incompetence. As a citizen in our county, we deserve honest answers to our questions.”
Cook said he has served as a poll worker and trusts the system, but the issue should have been resolved before releasing the ballot results. “It would have saved all of us a lot of conspiratorial rumors and dissatisfaction with the system. Mistakes can be explained. When it appears to be an attempt to cover up, it becomes something completely different. Real or not.”
Thibault said following an election there is a timeline that must be followed with board meetings, canvass and reports to the state, while at the same time they were trying to resolve the problem that caused the addition error.
“We were still trying to find out all this stuff and get it fixed before I gave you an answer,” Thibault told Cook during the hearing. “I wasn’t putting you off and I wasn’t trying to hide anything. I was trying to get the correct information before I gave it out.”
Following deliberations, the Board of Elections dismissed Cook’s protest pursuant to state statute 163.182.10 saying there was “not substantial evidence of any violation, irregularity or misconduct sufficient to cast doubt on the results of the election.”
Cook said he did not expect anything different, but said the hearing was the best way to get on record what happened. “Now everybody knows,” he said.
Following the conclusion of the hearing and canvass, Board of Elections Chair Kathy Tinsley said, “I think it shows that we want to be as transparent as possible and that we are willing to work with the public.”
After dismissing the protest, the Board of Elections reconvened the canvass that had been postponed on May 27 in order to hear Cook’s protest. During the canvass, the absentee and provisional ballots were entered into the system and the updated numbers have been posted on the state Board of Elections website, ncsbe.gov, click on the election results tab.