All 100 county boards of election in North Carolina are scrapping the absentee ballots that were ready to be sent out last week after the N.C. Supreme Court’s ruling to change the ballot.
About 146,000 North Carolina voters, including more than 12,900 military and overseas voters, have already requested ballots for the 2024 general election.
Buncombe County Board of Elections Director Corinne Duncan said the county will need to reprint about 6,000 ballots.
“Buncombe County Election Services is prioritizing getting the new Buncombe County ballots complete and the State Board is asking us not to mail those out until all 100 counties in North Carolina have completed that process and that's so that all voters will have the same amount of time to vote absentee,” Duncan said.
The 4-3 decision at the state's highest court required election officials to remove the "We The People" party line from the presidential race on the ballot, including presidential nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and vice-presidential nominee, Nicole Shanahan.
In anticipation of a possible decision, the state Board of Elections ordered a pause on ballot distribution on Friday.
Kennedy, who was running as an independent until late August, sued to get his name removed from the ballot in North Carolina and other battleground states. The move could prove beneficial for former President Donald Trump whom Kennedy endorsed.
The majority of the court, all Republicans, said leaving Kennedy on the ballot would disenfranchise voters who cast a vote for him.
"We acknowledge that expediting the process of printing new ballots will require considerable time and effort by our election officials and significant expense to the State," Justice Trey Allen wrote. "But that is a price the North Carolina Constitution expects us to incur to protect voters’ fundamental right to vote their conscience and have that vote count."
Republican Justice Richard Dietz joined the court's two Democratic justices, Allison Riggs and Anita Earls, in dissenting.
Earls wrote that she was concerned that "contravening state and federal laws to satisfy the shifting desires of a particular political candidate and his political party erodes the rule of law and contributes to a loss of faith in the impartiality of the state judiciary."
In her dissent, Justice Riggs said Kennedy was trying to "have his cake and eat it too."
"Elections—the cornerstone of our democracy—are not games or exercises in ego-stroking," she wrote.
Costs of reprinting
Duncan said it cost about $30,000 to print the initial absentee ballots. It will cost about $28,500 to reprint. Cost will vary by county.
Swain County says the total reprinting cost will likely be between $5,000 and $6,000.
Jackson County BOE director Amanda Allen shared that updated ballots without the "We the People" line in the presidential contest ballot were proofed over the weekend and the county is moving forward with ordering and printing new ballots.
“We have not yet received guidance on the timeline - when we will receive ballots or be able to print internally - or a date to get them in the mail,” Allen said in an email.
The new date for absentee ballot mailing is unclear. The state board must wait until all counties are ready to send out ballots so that all North Carolinians have the same amount of time to vote, Duncan explained.
“The State Board objective here is to make sure that all counties are being uniform. That's an important thing in North Carolina. It's part of why we have a state system. And so that's the priority is that we make sure that we all send out at the same time and voters have a similar amount of time to vote,” Duncan said.
The federal deadline for distributing military and overseas ballots to voters is Sept. 21st.
"And so I'm hoping that things happen before that,” Duncan added.
The State Board said it has begun discussions with the U.S. Department of Defense to seek a potential waiver of that Sept. 21 federal requirement.
“We will continue to consult with counties and ballot vendors to determine the feasible start date for distributing absentee ballots statewide, mindful of the goal to meet the 45-day federal deadline,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said in a press release.
Ballots that have already been printed will be moved to storage and kept for 22 months per state law, Duncan said.
Voters may request Absentee ballots until October 29 at 5 p.m. You can find more information at https://www.ncsbe.gov/voting/vote-mail.
