At the Nov. 6 meeting, Buncombe County elections staff recommended and the board approved six provisional ballots after staff completed provisional research.

Nathaniel (Nate) Speier, the candidate coordinator, told the board the state legislature passed Senate Bill 382, which reduced the time the county has to process provisional ballots from 10 days to three business days. "They have to be counted by 5 p.m. the third business day after the election," Speier said, explaining the new statutory deadline and its operational impact.

Speier said county staff tested process changes over the summer to meet the shorter window. Staff plan to use a digital form (a Microsoft Form) that asks one question at a time and records answers in an Excel database to speed research and provide an auditable record. He said the office will hire seasonal workers—"10 to 20 people" in his estimate—to handle research in larger elections; staff and budget staff have modeled staffing needs for the next fiscal year.

The six provisional ballots presented were the result of three categories: geocode or unrecognized address issues tied to new builds; a voter who appeared at the incorrect precinct but received the correct ballot style; and a poll‑worker error where a voter was incorrectly marked as already voted. Staff recommended approving all six after checking SEAMs, voter view, DMV records and the county GIS data.

Devin (Elections/GIS staff) described the county geocode as a nonspatial address table used to match residences to jurisdictions and ballot styles; new construction may not appear immediately, which can lead to provisional ballots. "The geocode is the foundation for everything else that we build on because that's how everybody gets ballot styles," Devin said.

A board member moved to approve all six provisional ballots as presented by staff; the motion was seconded and carried on a voice vote. Staff said the six provisional ballots were scanned and accepted and that the official results at the canvass on Friday would reflect the added ballots.

Board members asked staff to present the updated official tapes and a report showing how the provisional additions changed the canvassed totals at the Friday canvass.