LAURINBURG — For 45 minutes, the Scotland County Board of Elections poured over 163 ballots that had been flagged after a protest had been filed on Nov. 12 in the races for state attorney general and the chief justice of the NC Supreme Court.

In the end, the board voted to dismiss the protests during Monday’s preliminary consideration. Should there now be a further challenge made, it would go directly to the State Board of Elections.

Of the 163 ballots flagged, some did not list a zip code as part of the address of the voter and/or witness; some did not spell out Laurinburg; and some did not list the city name with the address.

“In my conversation with (Dell) Parker, each of the ballots met the legal requirements, but may not have had a complete address …” stated Board Attorney Ed Johnson. “The federal court has address what the state board has done — the core is that a ballot is not accepted if there is not a signature … but does not include minor errors like these.

“It appears an incomplete address is the reason they were flagged, and the federal court ruling does not invalidate them,” he added.

Parker, the director of the Scotland County Board of Elections, said the board spent until midnight on Friday investigating the ballots that were protested.

“Based on what we have been directed by the state board, I don’t see any reason these votes should not be counted,” she said. “We get our directives from the state board, and that’s what we need to be deciding upon.”

All of the flagged votes have already been counted as part of the general election, so no votes totals were changed by dismissing the protests on Monday.

W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-506-3023 or [email protected]. To support The Laurinburg Exchange, subscribe here: https://laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com/subscribe.