Seven felons and one non-citizen marking ballots are the only confirmed cases of illegal voting in Beaufort County during the 2016 general election, according to statewide investigation.

That investigation, conducted by the North Carolina State Board of Elections, identified 508 confirmed cases of voting irregularities, 441 of them attributed to felons who had not had their voting rights restored. The report of the investigation notes that 24 people voted twice, 41 people who voted were non-citizens and there were two incidents of voter impersonation.

The report, issued Friday, concludes there was no evidence of ballot stuffing or equipment tampering. The report also concluded the voting irregularities did not affect outcomes in local and statewide races.

“The evidence suggests that participation by ineligible voters is neither rampant nor non-existent in North Carolina. Our audits suggest that in the 2016 general election, approximately 0.01% of ballots were cast by ineligible voters,” reads the report. “Most incidents are isolated and uncoordinated, and detecting technical violations does not always prove purposefully unlawful conduct. Our work indicates that ineligible voters are not isolated to one political party or any geographical region of the state.”

The report also “strongly cautions” readers not to refer each case as evidence of voter fraud. “As stated earlier, ‘ineligible voters casting ballots’ may be the result of unintentional or intentional conduct. Fraud, in most cases, is an intent crime that requires prosecutors to show that the voter knowingly committed a crime,” reads the report.

Kim Westbrook Strach, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said, “This report reflects our agency’s commitment to transparency in its effort to investigate election irregularities and fraud, as required by state law. It also provides necessary context to a complicated issue.

“Our agency uses government databases to conduct a series of audits that identify irregularities later reviewed by in-house investigators. Cases are referred to prosecutors when warranted by the evidence.

“One ineligible vote is too many in any election; however, our analysis of irregularities does not indicate any contest was affected in November.

We improve our processes with every election so North Carolinians can have full confidence in the integrity of elections.”

Some voting irregularities, such as double voting, were referred to prosecutors. Some cases were prosecuted, but others were not.

One of those cases not prosecuted involved a woman who voted for her 89-year-old mother, who died days before the general election. The day before her mother died, according to a statement the woman made to investigators, she told her daughter “if anything happens to me you have my power of attorney and you be sure to vote for Donald Trump for me.”

The woman said she carried out her mother’s wish Nov. 3. “Please understand that my actions in no way were intended to be fraudulent but were done during my grief and an effort to honor my mother’s last request and I knew that one vote from this 89 year old lady would not affect the outcome of the election anyway,” the woman, who was not identified in the report, wrote to investigators.

The report notes that some people involved in the voting irregularities told investigators they were confused about their voter-registration status.