Burke County's voting machines are tested and ready to go for the March primary

Early voting begins tomorrow, and Burke County election officials have put in the work rigorously testing machines to ensure accurate ballot counts in the March primary.

Logic and accuracy (L&A) testing started a couple weeks ago and concluded last week. All machines have a clean bill of health, said Elections Specialist III Trent Price.

“We’ve never had a machine fail, but if a machine is found to have any issues, we would replace it with one of our spare machines until it could be repaired,” Price said.

Price said 42 DS-200 tabulators and 37 ExpressVote machines will be used in the March primary election. There are six spare DS-200s and eight spare ExpressVotes that will not be used in this election unless the need arises.

L&A testing is a mandatory part of each election cycle that ensures machines are working properly. Vendors that supply the county with its voting equipment send test ballots to both the local board of elections and state board prior to L&A testing. Some test ballots are blank, some are randomly marked, and some have every dot filled in.

Test ballots are fed into voting machines by bipartisan teams approved by board members. Burke County elections board staff review the results, then send the information to the State Board of Elections. The state board then uses its copy of the test ballots to double-check.

When testing is complete, staff members zero out the machines and place tamper-proof seals on each one before they go to their respective precincts.

All 31 of Burke County’s voting precincts will be used in the November general election, as there are county, state, and federal elections this year.

There will be five early voting sites for the primary. Voters may cast their ballot at any early voting location, but in November, voters must vote in their designated precinct.

Price said the board is grateful for the bipartisan teams that help with L&A testing. This time, the teams were made up of Don Nelson (R), Dawn Towery (R), Susan Briggs (D), and Nina Horton (D).

VOTER REGISTRATION

While the deadline was Friday, those who are not registered still have the option to register and vote on the same day during early voting, which starts next week on Thursday.

Those who are unsure of their registration status may check their status by visiting www.ncsbe.gov/registering/checking-your-registration and clicking “Voter Search.” Filling out the information will bring up a list of voters with that name. Click on the name corresponding with your county, city, state, and ZIP code, and a new webpage will open with information such as registration status and the voter’s precinct for the November election.

2026 PRIMARY DATES AND DEADLINES

• Feb. 12: In-person early voting begins; same-day voter registration available
• Feb. 17: Absentee ballot request deadline (5 p.m.)
• Feb. 28: In-person early voting ends (3 p.m.)
• March 3: Primary Election Day
• March 3: Absentee ballot return deadline (7:30 p.m.)
• March 13: County boards of elections primary canvass meetings (11 a.m.)

Voter registration and absentee voting deadlines are different for military and overseas citizen voters.

The Burke County elections board office is at 2128 S. Sterling St. in Morganton. Call 828-764-9010 for more information.