MORRISVILLE - The delivery of six absentee ballots to the county election office has spawned a state investigation involving two Morrisville Town Council members and allegations of ballot mishandling, a felony.

When Councilman Steve Diehl dropped off the sealed, completed ballots in Raleigh on Oct. 28 - as a favor to Linda Lyons, a councilwoman running for re-election - neither had any idea it was against the law.

Under state law, it is illegal for anyone other than "the voter, an immediate family member or guardian" to deliver an absentee ballot to the election office, said Gary Sims, deputy director of the Wake County Board of Elections.

Both Lyons and Diehl call the situation a misunderstanding.

"If I would have known it was illegal, I never would have done that," said Lyons. "What they need to do is make things very clear."

Lyons points to a flier by the N.C. Department of Elections outlining five quick steps for filing an absentee ballot. In step 5 it reads: "only a voter, a legal guardian, or a near relative can hand deliver absentee ballots."

Lyons said she took "a voter" to mean that any registered voter could deliver. She said this is the first year she had tried hand delivery.

For years, Lyons said, she has made sure the homebound or elderly in her community have access to voting by helping them receive ballots, mail ballots and serve as a witness to certify ballots.

"Our group is tight-knit and we try to help each other out," she said. The board of elections "took a good thing and turned it into something bad."

Diehl said he was headed to the election office when Lyons asked him to drop of the ballots. He said he did not see a difference between mailing or hand-delivering the ballots. He said that when he dropped them off he received no indication he had broken the law.

"They said 'This is not our normal procedure,' " Diehl said. "Why didn't they tell me this is illegal?"

Those six ballots have since been denied and those voters must re-send their ballots, said Sims.

Sims said the handling of the ballots was "suspicious" and he referred the matter to the elections board, which voted Tuesday to pass it on to the Wake County District Attorney's Office, which in turn referred the matter to the SBI.

Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby Jr., said he is waiting for the SBI finding to decide whether to file charges.

Sims said the election office also had concerns because Lyons said she planned to serve as an absentee ballot witness to 25 other residents. Candidates are not allowed to serve as witnesses, he said. Lyons also said she was going to mail a ballot for her sister, who was out of town. Officials were concerned because they were unsure whether the ballot had been completed. Some of these issues will be addressed at the elections board meeting Monday.