ELIZABETHTOWN — Eight more absentee-by-mail ballots were approved by the Bladen County Board of Elections on Tuesday.

Valeria McKoy, interim director of the board, said 10 had been returned but two were without proper signatures. Those two were reissued before the 5 p.m. deadline.

There have now been 64 absentee-by-mail ballots requested and sent out. Seventeen have come back and been approved by the board.

Early voting continues through Friday at two locations. At the county Board of Elections office, the hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; at the Tar Heel Municipal Building, the hours are 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The board considered options should Hurricane Dorian have an impact on early voting hours or even days. No action was taken.

The special election is necessary because of voting irregularities centered in Bladen County that led to doubt in the outcome last Nov. 6 in the race for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for North Carolina’s 9th District.

The four-way race includes Republican state Sen. Dan Bishop, Democrat Dan McCready, Allen Smith of the Green Party and Libertarian Jeff Scott. All are from Charlotte.

The panel on Tuesday also heard from McKoy on several items to include an update on election officials for the Sept. 10 special election, an update on one-stop voting, the plan for Tar Heel and how to get identification badges for the five board members.

Patsy Sheppard motioned to have tapes and abstracts of every election, including this one, to be copied and sent to the clerk of Superior Court. The proposal passed unanimously.

The board was asked about the interim tags on the director and deputy director. Louella Thompson, chairwoman of the board, said no decisions on those positions would be made until after Tuesday’s election. She also said the board would not guarantee a selection before the Nov. 5 election.

Asked by county Republican Party chairman Wayne Schaeffer how many applicants were under consideration, Thompson said seven for the director’s position.

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Alan Wooten

Bladen Journal

Alan Wooten can be reached at 910-247-9132 or awooten@bladenjournal.com. Twitter: @alanwooten19.