Ahead of 2026 midterms, courts rule on key NC election practices
Good morning and welcome to Under the Dome, I’m Kyle Ingram.
We’ve got updates for you on two stories affecting this year’s elections.
Let’s get into it.
NC election officials reach settlement with Trump DOJ over incomplete voter registrations
A federal judge on Monday approved a settlement between the North Carolina State Board of Elections and President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice regarding over 100,000 voters with incomplete registrations.
That settlement largely codifies the board’s existing Registration Repair project, which began this summer and aims to collect driver’s license numbers or Social Security numbers from voters who lack the information in the state’s databases.
Since beginning the project, the board has reduced the number of voters with missing information by 22%.
“Our plan is working, and this number will continue to drop as more voters become aware of this effort and fix their registrations,” said Sam Hayes, the board’s executive director.
Per the settlement, affected voters who do not complete their registration by the election will have to cast provisional ballots — which can be disqualified if voters do not eventually provide additional information.
However, the settlement specifies that affected voters must have their ballots counted for any federal elections — even if they don’t fix their registrations in time. The National Voter Registration Act forbids states from discounting votes in federal races for missing registration information, but does not apply to state and local contests.
Several civil rights groups have spoken out against the settlement, including the NAACP and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
“North Carolinians who have followed state-created procedures to register and vote should be confident that their vote will count,” said Jennifer Rubin, president of the North Carolina League of Women Voters. “...Voters should not be forced to choose between navigating new, unnecessary, burdensome bureaucratic hurdles or being silenced in the next election.”
To find out if you’re on the Registration Repair list, check out the state board’s search tool.
Judges rule in longstanding challenge to NC’s voter ID requirement
North Carolina’s voter ID law, alongside a cap on the state’s income tax, will remain in effect after a three-judge panel ruled Monday that they were not passed with discriminatory intent.
The decision stems from a longstanding challenge to the two laws — which were passed as constitutional amendments — that began in 2018.
The North Carolina NAACP alleged that the General Assembly lacked the authority to propose the two amendments because many lawmakers were found to have been elected in racially gerrymandered electoral districts.
The case eventually reached the state Supreme Court, which at the time had a 4-3 Democratic majority. The court did not fully endorse the NAACP’s theory, saying instead that the trial court needed to gather more evidence.
From there, the case stalled for several years, and the state’s voter ID law eventually took effect.
On Monday, however, a three-judge panel issued a ruling in the legislature’s favor, writing that the plaintiffs failed to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that lawmakers enacted the amendments “with discriminatory intent” and also failed to prove that either amendment produces “a meaningful disparate impact along racial lines.”
The case could eventually return to the state Supreme Court, which now has a 5-2 Republican majority.
What else we’re working on
- Hemp is legal in NC. Should smell be enough for police to search you?
- With Helene money caught in red tape, NC is ground zero for calls to reform FEMA
- After Helene, state helps repair and replace private roads in Western NC
- Durham’s primary election is just weeks away. Here’s what voters need to know
- NC House speaker exploring ‘potential legislative action’ after Charlotte stabbing
- NC Gov. Josh Stein calls for ‘more cops on the beat’ after Charlotte train stabbing
- Donald Trump reacts to Charlotte light rail stabbing and other ‘horrible killings’
- An NC senator’s words were manipulated by AI in an ad. Now she’s suing
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This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
