“A few days after our canvass, a temporary staff member asked to speak with me privately. She tearfully told me that when tabulating provisional ballots, she was told by a Board of Elections member to run some ballots a second time to get the ballot count number to match,” said Michael Perry, director of the Durham County Board of Elections, in an email.

Other staffers confirmed to Perry that they had been given the same instructions. The ballots were counted again, and hundreds were found to be missing. When asked, the supervisor said he did not know where the ballots had gone. According to Perry, that supervising staff member handed in his resignation two weeks later.

“The director who did this must be held fully accountable — they must be criminally charged for this. They had a sacred responsibility — they were entrusted with the voice of the people,” said Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy NC.

“In order to determine if criminal charges would be appropriate, the Durham Board of Elections will defer to the State Board of Elections, who will investigate the individual responsible, as well as the entire electoral procedure, comprehensively in order to check for further inconsistencies,” Perry said.