North Carolina absentee ballots to military and overseas voters were sent out today. In one Western North Carolina county, the move caused some confusion.
The absentee ballots were delayed by the state Supreme Court at the beginning of September when the Republican majority court ruled that absentee ballots across the 100 counties would have to be reprinted to remove the "We The People" party line including former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Jackson County Board of Elections (BOE) Director Amanda Allen said messaging in some media that North Carolina voting “started today” created confusion. The county BOE office had received over a dozen calls today asking when in-person voting will start.
“We've had some people stopping by the office asking about early voting when the sites are open. We've had people calling as well. They're just very eager and very excited because they keep hearing that the election season is starting. Voting is starting,” Allen said.
“We do want to reassure people that you can continue to request an absentee ballot. Those should be getting to you really soon. But in person voting does not begin until October 17th when early voting opens.”
Jackson County also reprinted all of the local absentee ballots that were requested before the change was made. These ballots are set to be sent out Sept. 24.
“We had to wait to make sure every county was able to distribute at the same time so that every North Carolina citizen gets the same access to the same voter periods,” Allen said. “So they split it up to give some a little bit more time to get bigger quantities of ballots in.”
Allen said reprinting cost the county an extra $8,000. Each county in North Carolina is responsible to pay its board of election costs, she explained.
“We actually received all 20,000 of all ballots before the Supreme Court decision and so we had to redo everything,” Allen said.
The state BOE also updated voter’s ballots who vote through the secure NC Absentee Ballot Portal. Military and overseas citizen voters can receive and return their ballot electronically through the portal.
Allen said that now is the time to figure out how you want to vote: do you want to vote on absentee, early in-person or on Election Day? Find out what works for you here.
In-person voting started in other parts of the country. Today voters in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia started early voting, according to the Associated Press. Every state operates on slightly different protocols.
Here are the important dates for voting in North Carolina:
- October 11: Voter registration deadline
- October 17: Early Voting starts
- October 29: Absentee ballot request deadline
- November 2: Early Voting ends
- November 5: Election Day
Find out more information about voting at BPR’s Election Hub.
