Buncombe County elections board approves 24 photo‑ID exception forms, disapproves one pending ID by Friday

The Buncombe County Board of Elections approved 24 photo‑ID exception forms for provisional ballots, disapproved one exception form and directed staff to contact the voter to provide acceptable identification by noon Friday, and deferred review of three cases that lacked exception forms, officials said.

Mr. Spire, who presented the exemption forms and provisional‑ballot materials, told the board that 308 entries appeared in the provisional module but that duplicates reduced the count to about 305 actual provisional ballots. "Right now I'm tracking 305 actual provisional ballots," Mr. Spire said, adding that staff had processed 194 and expected to finish the remainder ahead of the board’s meeting on Friday.

The board flagged a single exception form in which a voter wrote they "will provide to the BOE by March 6" on a form that otherwise appeared to be a photo‑ID exemption. Board members said that practice is inconsistent with how provisionals are normally handled and moved to disapprove that exemption to prompt the voter to present ID.

"I move that the Buncombe County Board of Elections disapprove the photo ID exception form and direct staff to contact the voter and encourage that voter to bring in their acceptable ID no later than noon on Friday," Board member Jake said when making the motion; a second was recorded and members approved the motion by voice vote.

Mr. Spire explained that three provisional envelopes contained an outside image indicating an exemption form but had no signed exception form inside the clear sleeve. Board members and staff discussed whether the omission resulted from a voter failing to place the form in the envelope or a poll worker error; staff described the incidents as "teachable moments" and said they would research the three cases before presenting a recommendation at the Friday meeting.

On the remaining 24 items presented at the meeting, the board voted to approve the photo‑ID exception forms as recommended by staff.

Separately, Director Duncan and other staff recapped operational changes used to process provisionals more quickly than usual, and noted that the state auditor’s office had stopped by the office and requested financial information related to the municipal election. The board discussed formalizing a request for additional time to respond; a board member later announced the auditor had granted a two‑week extension on that request.

The board set its next meeting for Friday at 1:00 p.m. to continue reviewing provisional ballots and to conduct the sample audit process. The sample audit, a public hand‑count of two randomly selected polling locations, is scheduled for Monday at 10:00 a.m., staff said.

What happened next: staff will contact the voter whose exemption form was disapproved and will research the three envelopes missing signed forms; the board will revisit those provisional ballots at its Friday meeting.