ELIZABETHTOWN — Two people in Bladen County voted twice each during the special election for the U.S. House of Representatives, the county’s Board of Elections says.
At its Friday meeting, the board believed that number to be three. On Monday, upon further review, the board changed course and said there was only two.
Also Monday, the board approved the final paperwork on supplemental absentee-by-mail ballots. The precinct results canvass was also approved.
In another matter, the board removed the name of Crystal Lewis Crumb from the ballot for the municipal election in Elizabethtown. Crumb filed to run for the City Council at a time when she did not meet the residential requirement.
In Friday’s meeting, the board finished decision-making on absentee-by-mail votes and provisionals from last Tuesday’s special election for the 9th District. None of the actions by the board will change the outcome in which state Sen. Dan Bishop, a Republican, defeated Democrat Dan McCready and two others.
Bishop is scheduled to be sworn into Congress on Tuesday night.
When they met Friday, the board was aware of three people believed to have voted twice. Three different routes were used: all voted in one stop, with one believed to have sent in an absentee-by-mail ballot, and two voted on Election Day. One of those voting on Election Day used a provisional ballot.
The votes of the person who voted at one stop and Election Day were each counted.
The provisional ballot of the third voter was rejected, meaning that voter only voted once. The board on Monday said the absentee-by-mail ballot was not sent back in.
The findings on the two who were found to have voted twice will be given to the state Board of Elections and to District Attorney Jon David. It is illegal in North Carolina to vote twice in any election.
Bladen County was at the center of a fraud scandal that made this election necessary. Eleven people have been arrested in what investigators have characterized as a ballot harvesting scheme organized by Bladenboro’s McCrae Dowless.
The board met in closed session regarding personnel but took no action. The staff is operating with interim tags attached. On Sept. 24 at 4 p.m., the board will convene again to review appilications and narrow the field for interviews.