North Carolina election officials say pending legal action over absentee voting won't impact the start of the mail-in voting period Friday.
North Carolina is the first state in the country to start mailing out absentee ballots for November's election. The process starts at noon Friday amid legal challenges to President Donald Trump's order to create new U.S. Postal Service regulations for mail-in ballots.
Trump had ordered the Postal Service to create an online portal for states to submit voter information before absentee ballots go into the mail, but as of this week, courts have blocked the order from taking effect.
State Board of Elections executive director Sam Hayes says he's closely monitoring court action and will implement the new system if it's allowed to take effect. Ballots already include the bar codes required for tracking under those regulations.
"North Carolina was already compliant with the best practices that the Postal Service is trying to codify through their rules," Hayes said at a news conference Thursday. "We believe that we are well positioned, as our envelopes have already been approved by the Postal Service. ... We are on track, and we plan to make this process as seamless as possible for the voters of the state."
Separately from the federal action, the State Board of Elections will meet Friday morning to discuss guidance to county election officials on processing absentee ballots. Hayes declined to provide details on what that guidance might look like. The board was initially set to address that topic during a meeting on Wednesday, but it postponed action and never publicly released the draft documents it was considering.
The lack of transparency drew criticism from Gov. Josh Stein on Wednesday evening. "What is going on at the State Board of Elections?" Stein said in a social media post. "No one should have to ask these questions less than 48 hours before absentee ballots are mailed out. The State Board needs to get it together."
Asked by reporters Thursday, Hayes wouldn't say if the guidance is similar to controversial new rules for absentee ballots that the State Board of Elections approved in July. Those rules went before the state's Rules Review Commission last week, but because a number of people — including Stein — filed objections, they will need approval from the legislature before they become official.
"We're still having those internal discussions, and I don't want to preempt the board," Hayes said of Friday's agenda. "They will vote on some further policy guidance for the counties. I want to emphasize that voters will not be impacted by that — that is our guidance to the counties on how to handle these ballots."
Hayes says the board is reviewing previous guidance to county officials issued by the election agency's previous leadership under a Democratic majority. Those instructions were issued through what are known as "numbered memos," rather than formally approved rules.
Stein had raised concerns about proposed rules for processing absentee ballots where the voter made an error, such as leaving the ballot envelope unsealed. The proposed rules would create more circumstances where the voter would need to start the absentee voting process again to correct the mistake, rather than a simpler process to "cure" the problematic ballot.
Voters have until Oct. 20 to request an absentee ballot through the State Board of Elections website, but officials say voters should do so as soon as they can.
"We would strongly recommend that people mail their ballot in as soon as possible, but if in the event that they reach election eve and they have noticed their ballot has not been accepted, they can actually go to the polling place and cast a ballot," said Parker Holland, director of elections administration.
The state uses a system called BallotTrax where absentee voters can track the status of their ballot online.
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