Absentee ballots delayed

Absentee voting by mail is set to begin Friday morning, but no ballots currently are available to be mailed, said Alleghany County Director of Elections Kate Cosner.

The ballots were held up this year by a recent development, a N.C. Court of Appeals seat was placed on the ballot recently after the resignation of Samuel Wynn. Due to that resignation, the timeline for candidates to sign up for that seat began Aug. 24 and was slated to end at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31.

Therefore, the ballots that normally would be proofed and sent to the printers by now are on hold awaiting a list of those candidates. As of Friday evening, five candidates had already filed for the seat. After the filing period ends, Cosner said she would be seeking a list of candidates and then checking with the State Board of Elections on procedural issues.

Those issues are arising due to the fact that the election for that Court of Appeals seat will be an ‘instant runoff' situation, the first ever in Alleghany County and the first to be held statewide. However, Cosner noted that there have been municipal elections in other areas of the state that featured the provision.

Under instant runoff, the candidates are ranked by voters in the order the voters would prefer to see them elected. In the case of one candidate failing to get a clear majority, the rankings would be used, rather than a traditional runoff (second election), to determine the winner.