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Phone usage sign at Union County polling place causes confusion for some voters

A Union County resident says she only remembered one candidate in a nonpartisan race and needed her phone, so she didn't complete her ballot.

LAKE PARK, N.C. — A voter told WCNC Charlotte's Jane Monreal the voting experience was affected because she couldn't use her phone.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, said signs taped up at her polling place, the Lake Park Community Center, instructed all voters to turn off their cellphones and other electronic devices before entering. She said the Union County Board of Elections logo was on the sign. 

She told WCNC Charlotte that earlier in the day she had used the North Carolina State Board of Elections official website to make notes on a sample ballot and had intended to refer to them.

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Instead, she said she followed the instructions of the signage and turned her cellphone off. 

The WCNC Charlotte viewer said she contacted both the Union County Board of Elections and the state Board of Elections and confirmed that she could have used her phone as a reference tool.

Mecklenburg County Elections Director, Michael Dickerson, told WCNC Charlotte he personally uses the phone to store notes.

"Cell phones are allowed," Dickerson said. "I use notes on my cell phone and people will do that. Or, they'll have picture of the ballot of how they want to vote, and that's fine."

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A spokesperson for the NCSBE emailed Monreal, "Union County posts the sign immediately below at the entrances to its polling locations, and the bottom sign with its voting equipment. These signs do not say to turn off electronic devices. We are not aware of any other phone-related signs as polling places. The signs are meant to inform voters of prohibitions on recording or photographing a ballot and communicating with anyone while voting so that no voter inadvertently breaks state law."

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In addition, the State Board of Elections website states, "Voters are allowed to have phones or electronic devices with them while voting as long as those devices are not used to photograph or videotape a ballot or communicate with anyone."

The woman said the signs she saw had the Union County logo on it. She has since gone back to her polling place and said any materials related to voting have been taken down. In a Union County private social media page, others weighed in about similar images at other Union County polling locations.

Credit: WCNC

One posted, "My immediate thought was were the rules changed," only to observe the signs at the voting booth were more specific about phones not being allowed to communicate or record.

Contact Jane Monreal at jmonreal@wcnc.com and follow her on FacebookTwitter and Instagram.  

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