Voting by mail in North Carolina may not be as easy as it was in 2020
Mail-in voting has started in North Carolina for the 2022 primary elections, and people who voted by mail in 2020 will notice some changes this year.
As of Thursday, state records show that more than 7,000 North Carolinians have already requested absentee ballots. Unlike some states, North Carolina doesn’t require people to have an excuse to vote by mail. Anyone who wants to can vote by mail in North Carolina.
“No special circumstance or reason is needed,” the N.C. State Board of Elections says on its website. “Registered voters in North Carolina must request an absentee ballot with an official N.C. Absentee Ballot Request Form.”
Usually only a very small percentage of voters choose to vote by mail, but interest spiked massively in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of those first-time mail-in voters could find the process this year slightly more cumbersome, if they decide to mail their ballots again. Requesting a mail-in ballot won’t be as easy as it was in 2020, nor will filling it out and sending it back in.
One thing that hasn’t changed is that people can still request mail-in ballots online. The internet isn’t the only option, as people may also contact their county elections office, or the state office, and either pick up a request form up in person or ask for one to be mailed, emailed or faxed to them.
People have until April 22 to register to vote, and until May 10 to request a mail-in ballot if they want one. The primary is on May 17. More information on voting can be found at www.ncsbe.gov.
Why was 2020 different?
The state made changes to mail-in voting in 2020 due to public health concerns and increased demand — like a new system for people to track their ballots to make sure they were delivered, and legal changes that made mail-in voting easier.
The ballot-tracking system remains, so people can still use that program, called BallotTrax.
But for the most part, rules have reverted to what they were before 2020.
Republican leaders at the legislature said in 2020 that the changes would be temporary, due to the pandemic, and they have stuck with that. Democratic Rep. Pricey Harrison of Greensboro, whom the GOP allowed to help write some of those changes, said in a recent email that she asked about making the changes permanent but was unsuccessful. The 2020 election saw North Carolina’s highest-ever voter turnout, due in part to record-breaking numbers of people voting by mail.
“I inquired about this last year and found very little appetite for extending the provisions relating to mail-in ballots,” Harrison said.
Changes to know about
▪ Two witnesses required: North Carolina has typically required mail-in ballots to be signed by two witnesses, to prevent possible fraud. That requirement dropped to just one witness in 2020, due to concerns over social distancing, but is now back to two. However, as has always been the case, people can submit a ballot with just one signature if it’s notarized.
▪ Ballot request rules: Voters can send back their absentee ballot request form on the NCSBE website, or by either picking a form up in person or printing one out, then delivering it to their county elections office by mail or in person. It’s no longer possible to submit the forms by email or fax, as it was in 2020, although people can still use those methods to request a form.
▪ Restrictions on outside help: The state allows “multipartisan assistance teams” — basically, groups of Republicans and Democrats, working together— to go to hospitals, clinics and nursing homes to help people request, fill out or send in absentee ballots. That isn’t changing this year. Those teams had been given much broader authority in 2020, but that’s no longer on the books. They’re once again restricted in where they can operate.
▪ Voters’ ability to fix mistakes: This is one area where the rules that changed in 2020 to make things easier have remained in place. That’s because it didn’t come through the time-limited legislation, but rather through the courts and the N.C. State Board of Elections. In 2020 a federal judge ordered that voters be notified of — and allowed to fix — certain potential problems with their absentee ballots, like a signature on the wrong line or an incomplete address. That order itself was temporary, but last year the elections board instituted more permanent rules that kept many of the changes. The News & Observer reported that around 6,000 North Carolina voters were notified of fixable problems with their absentee ballots in 2020, after that court ruling.
▪ Shorter grace period: North Carolina will once again have a three-day grace period after the election for mail-in ballots to come in. That is meant to let voters wait until Election Day to make up their mind and get their ballot in the mail — although any ballots postmarked after the election will not be counted, as has always been the case. The grace period was extended significantly in 2020, due to a controversial legal settlement that Republican lawmakers objected to. But that only applied to 2020, so the grace period is back to the normal three days. GOP lawmakers tried last year to eliminate it entirely, passing a bill that would have forced elections officials to throw out ballots that arrive in the mail after polls close on Election Day, but Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed it.
Will anything change for the general election?
It’s technically possible, but unlikely.
The top GOP legislator for election laws, who wrote the 2020 bill, was David Lewis, who is no longer in office. His replacement as chairman of the elections committee in the N.C. House, Republican Rep. Destin Hall of Lenoir, is not planning to bring any of those 2020-only rules back for this year’s general election in November.
“The temporary COVID election rules were necessary to navigate extraordinary circumstances,” Hall said. “I do not expect the legislature to extend the temporary rules.”
Hall added that he would like to have stricter rules for elections, like requiring a photo ID to vote. While voter ID is a popular stance in North Carolina, winning voters’ approval in a recent ballot referendum, critics say it’s racially discriminatory because white voters are more likely than Black voters to have acceptable forms of ID.
Republicans’ 2013 attempt at a voter ID law was ruled unconstitutional after federal courts found that their intentions were racially motivated. After that court loss, GOP leaders passed a new version of the law in 2018 which they hoped would be seen as less discriminatory. That has been put on hold ever since, however, with multiple lawsuits challenging its constitutionality.
“Our elections are safest when people vote in person with a photo ID,” Hall said.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
