Ward County on track for in-person voting
Options include voting centers, early voting, absentee ballots
Ward County is on track to open five Voting Centers for in-person voting during the Nov. 3 general election. There also will be six days of in-person early voting.
Ward County Auditor Marisa Haman said her office has been able to find enough workers to staff the centers. Two centers will be in Minot, at the State Fair Center and Minot Municipal Auditorium. Other centers will be in Ryder, Berthold and Kenmare.
Haman told the local government Liaison Committee Thursday that the county has mailed or will mail today 11,000 absentee ballots to voters. The auditor’s office is accepting applications for absentee ballots from voters who prefer absentee to in-person voting or who will be unable to visit a physical polling place. Drop boxes for ballots will be available as they were during the primary election.
Haman also said the county does not require ballots be placed in the provided secrecy sleeve before being inserted into the signed affidavit envelope. Those ballots are counted even if the sleeves are missing.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that election officials can reject so-called “naked” ballots that are received without the secrecy envelope, which has led to fears that thousands of mail-in ballots could be thrown out in that state.
Secrecy sleeves ensure a voter’s ballot remains secret. Haman explained sleeves containing the ballot are removed from affidavit envelopes and mixed together before ballots are removed for counting.
Voters who err in submitting their ballots are contacted by the auditor’s office to correct the errors. Failing to sign the affidavit is a common error, Haman said. Voters who fail to correct an error or whose ballots are rejected by the canvassing board also receive a notification letter.
In other business, the Liaison Committee briefly discussed the governor’s reclassification of Ward County into a higher risk category for COVID-19. A local task force, similar to the joint information committee in place earlier in the pandemic, will be stood up to address the community’s response.