北卡罗来纳州罗利——随着大流行引发邮件投票的激增，包括北卡罗来纳州和佛罗里达州在内的几个州的选民开始投票威斯康星州，正面临着一个已经让数千人困惑的要求——需要一个见证人在他们的选票信封上签名。
美联社(Associated Press)对州选举数据的分析显示，缺乏证人签名或其他证人信息已成为北卡罗来纳州选票在清点前被搁置的主要原因，这些问题对该州黑人选民的影响尤为严重。
虽然有一个修复遗漏的过程，但投票权倡导者表示，这些数字是一个早期警告信号，表明这一额外的步骤正在成为一个障碍，可能会剥夺选民的投票权，也是一场激烈竞争中法律斗争的潜在来源。
残疾人权利倡导者芭芭拉·贝克尔特说:“人们对这整个证人要求感到困惑。”威斯康星州这是对证人保护令提出质疑的诉讼的一部分。“缺席投票很复杂。要做到这一点，你必须遵循许多非常具体的规则。”
有初步迹象表明，选民们正在努力遵守这些规则。在北卡罗来纳州，自大约三周前开始提前投票以来，已经有超过20万张选票被退回并得到处理。由于缺少证人姓名、签名或地址，至少有1700人无法统计。根据州选举委员会的数据，这个数字占了周二之前无法接受的所有选票的近一半。
根据州选举数据，截至周二，黑人选民投出了43%的选票，被归类为证人信息不完整。然而，迄今为止，黑人选民已经投下了总票数的大约16%。
州选举委员会发言人帕特·甘农将这些错误归因于对选举过程缺乏经验。在过去的选举中，北卡罗来纳州是投票人数相对较少的几个州之一。
甘农说:“许多选民第一次通过邮件投票，可能不完全理解法律的要求。”
作为本周法律解决方案的一部分，州委员会同意让选民更容易解决问题，简化选票处理过程。
证人要求相对较少。在大流行之前，12个州要求选民在选票上有公证人或证人签名。然而，根据布伦南正义中心的数据，一些国家修改了法律，使选民更容易远程投票，避免感染病毒的风险，目前总数为8个，包括阿拉巴马州、阿拉斯加州、路易斯安那州、密西西比州、密苏里州、俄克拉荷马州和威斯康星州。
西方五个全邮件投票州都不要求证人签名。
这项要求的支持者说，它旨在通过让其他人为选民担保来防止选民欺诈。
缺席投票申请在该州2018年国会选举的调查中发挥了重要作用，该州要求举行新的选举。一个农村县的政治工作者作证说，他们被指示收集空白或不完整的选票，在上面伪造签名，甚至为当地候选人填写选票。这件事发生在北卡罗来纳州需要两个签名或一名公证人作为证人的时候。
但倡导团体表示，对于老年人、独居者以及有残疾或慢性健康问题的人来说，这些规定不必要地使过程复杂化。一些团体和民主党人已经起诉了有这一要求的州的规定。
在威斯康星州，一名联邦法官本周支持了11月选举的要求。南卡罗来纳州的一名法官驳回了该州的证人保护令，写道这只会“增加弱势群体感染新冠肺炎的风险”。周四，联邦上诉法院恢复了它，至少是暂时的。
在威斯康星州，8月份初选中约80%的选票是缺席的，投票小组专注于指导人们如何填写，并提前教育选民。
就连威斯康星州民主党参议员塔米·鲍德温也表示，她对这一挑战感同身受。
鲍德温说:“我一个人住，我实际上走到外面，等着我看到的第一个人遛狗，问他们是否可以停下来做我的证人。”她描述了自己在4月份总统初选中的投票经历。“想象一下，生活在一个农村社区，独自生活在那里，这不是一个选择。或者独自生活，害怕让某人进来，因为我们正处于流行病之中。”
直到本周，北卡罗来纳州缺席投票的证人信息的缺乏意味着投票基本上被取消了，第二次投票被发送给选民填写，仍然需要一名证人。自由派和工会倡导团体在民主党团体的资助下，在法庭上挑战缺席规则，他们认为重新投票在大流行期间给选民带来了不公平的负担。
根据董事会和一些原告周二公布的一项和解协议，选民现在可以通过返回一份选民签署的宣誓书来解决这个问题，宣誓书确认他们实际上填写了原始选票，否则将受到重罪的惩罚。
“这项协议是北卡罗来纳州所有合格老年选民的胜利，”退休美国人联盟的执行董事理查德·嘉年华说，该联盟的北卡罗来纳州分支机构就这些规则提起诉讼。
共和党立法领导人对这一变化和协议中的其他变化感到愤怒，他们打算在法庭上反对这一变化。共和党参议员拉尔夫·海斯说，宣誓书基本上消除了证人的要求。他说，负责州委员会的民主党人“在选举积极进行的同时，重写了选举法”。
尽管如此，选民还是希望避免电子邮件、传真或邮寄宣誓书的麻烦。北卡罗来纳州选举委员会在网上强调证人要求。
在威斯康星州，麦迪逊的选举官员也计划在接下来的两个周末在所有的城市公园接受缺席投票，并在需要时作为证人。周五晚些时候，共和党立法领导人的一名律师在给该市书记员的一封信中质疑了行动的安全性，要求该市放弃这一想法，“以避免无效投票或不必要诉讼的威胁”。
北卡罗来纳州全国有色人种协进会(North Carolina NAACP)的政治主席格林斯博罗(Greensboro)的布拉德利·亨特(Bradley Hunt)说，该组织正在协助黑人选民完成这一过程，建议家人和朋友作为证人的选择。全国有色人种协进会强调的是一种无所不能的态度，不管有什么障碍。
“给我们人民的信息是，我们必须坚定，我们必须深思熟虑...以便投票，”亨特说。
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鲍尔在威斯康星州麦迪逊报道。美联社记者乔纳森·德鲁在北卡罗来纳州达勒姆报道。
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美联社的提前投票指南为你带来了关于提前投票的事实，无论是通过邮件还是缺席投票:https://interactives.ap.org/advance-voting-2020/
Voters struggling with witness rules in early voting
RALEIGH, N.C. -- As the pandemic prompts a surge in voting by mail, voters in a handful of states, including the presidential battlegrounds of North Carolina andWisconsin, are facing a requirement that already is tripping up thousands — the need to have a witness sign their ballot envelope.
A lack of a witness signature or other witness information has emerged as the leading cause of ballots being set aside before being counted in North Carolina, with problems disproportionately affecting Black voters in the state, according to an Associated Press analysis of state election data.
While there is a process for fixing the omissions, voting rights advocates say the numbers are an early warning sign that the extra step is becoming a barrier that could disenfranchise voters — and a potential source of legal battles in a tight race.
“People are confused by this whole witness requirement,” said Barbara Beckert, an advocate for Disability RightsWisconsin, which was part of a lawsuit that unsuccessfully challenged the witness mandate. “Voting absentee is complicated. To get it right, you have to follow a lot of very specific rules.”
There are early signs that voters are struggling to follow those rules. In North Carolina, over 200,000 ballots have been returned and processed since early voting began almost three weeks ago. At least 1,700 couldn't be counted because of lack of a witness name, signature or address. That number accounted for nearly half of all ballots that couldn't be accepted through Tuesday, according to State Board of Elections data.
As of Tuesday, Black voters cast 43 percent of the ballot classified as having incomplete witness information, according to the state elections data. Yet Black voters have cast roughly 16 percent of overall ballots returned to date.
Pat Gannon, a spokesman for the state elections board, attributed the mistakes to inexperience with the process. North Carolina is one of several states where relatively few voters cast mail-in ballots in past elections.
“Many of these voters are voting by mail for the first time and may not fully understand the requirements of the law,” Gannon said.
As part of a legal settlement this week, the state board agreed to make it easier for voters to fix the issues, streamlining the process for curing ballots.
The witness requirement is relatively rare. Before the pandemic, 12 states required voters to have notary or witness signatures with their ballots. However, several changed their laws to make it easier for voters to cast ballots remotely and avoid the risk of contracting the virus, leaving the total now at eight, including Alabama, Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
A witness signature is not required in any of the five all-mail voting states in the West.
Proponents of the requirement say it's designed to prevent voter fraud by holding others accountable for vouching for a voter.
Absentee ballot applications played a prominent role in the investigation of a 2018 congressional election in the state that required a new election. Workers for a political operative in a rural county testified they were directed to collect blank or incomplete ballots, forge signatures on them and even fill in votes for local candidates. It happened during a time when North Carolina required two signatures or one notary public as a witness.
But advocacy groups say the rules unnecessarily complicate a process for older people, people who live alone and those with disabilities or chronic health problems. Several groups and Democrats are among those who have sued over rules in states with the requirement.
In Wisconsin, a federal judge this week upheld the requirement for the November election. A judge in South Carolina struck down the state's witness mandate, writing it would only “increase the risk of contracting COVID-19” for vulnerable populations. On Thursday, a federal appeals court reinstated it, at least temporarily.
In Wisconsin, where about 80% of votes cast in the August primary were absentee, voting groups are focused on coaching people on how to fill it out and educating voters in advance.
Even U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, said she empathizes with the challenge.
“I live alone and I actually went outside and waited for the first person I saw walking their dog and asked if they could stop for a moment and be my witness,” Baldwin said, describing her experience voting in the April presidential primary. “Imagine living in a rural community and living alone where that wouldn’t an option. Or living alone and being afraid to let someone in because we’re in a pandemic.”
Until this week, the lack of witness information on a North Carolina absentee ballot meant the ballot was essentially canceled, and a second ballot was sent to the voter to fill out, with a witness still required. Liberal and union-advocacy groups, bankrolled by Democratic groups to challenge absentee rules in court, argued that re-vote unfairly burdened voters during the pandemic.
Under a settlement unveiled Tuesday between the board and some plaintiffs, voters now will be able to fix the problem by returning an affidavit the voter signs affirming under penalty of a felony that they actually filled out the original ballot.
“This agreement is a victory for all eligible older voters in North Carolina,” said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, whose North Carolina affiliate sued over the rules.
Republican legislative leaders are incensed by this change and others in the agreement, which they intend to oppose in court. The affidavit fail-safe essentially eliminates the witness requirement, said GOP state Sen. Ralph Hise. Democrats in charge of the state board have “rewritten election laws while the election is actively underway," Hise said.
Still, the trouble of emailing, faxing or mailing an affidavit is something voters would prefer to avoid. North Carolina's election board is highlighting the witness requirement online.
In Wisconsin, election officials in Madison also planned to be in all city parks for the next two weekends to accept absentee ballots and serve as witnesses if needed. An attorney for Republican legislative leaders late Friday questioned the security of the operation in a letter to the city clerk, asking the city to drop the idea "to avoid the threat of invalided ballots or needless litigation.”
The North Carolina NAACP is assisting Black voters work through the process by suggesting family and friends as options for witnesses, said the Rev. C. Bradley Hunt of Greensboro, the group's political chair. The NAACP is emphasizing a can-do attitude, no matter the obstacles.
“The message to our folks is that we have to be resolute and we have to deliberate...in order to get the vote out," Hunt said.
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Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press writer Jonathan Drew in Durham, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
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AP’s Advance Voting guide brings you the facts about voting early, by mail or absentee from each state: https://interactives.ap.org/advance-voting-2020/
