North Carolina mail ballot changes challenged

The state adopted changes to mail-in voting the same day absentee ballots for the midterms began going out.RALEIGH, N.C. (CN) — Several North Carolina organizations filed suit Tuesday to challenge the battleground state’s changes to mail-in ballots.North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans, North Carolina Asian Americans Together, Down Home North Carolina and two voters sued the state board of elections and two county election boards, claiming last-minute changes to the absentee ballot process disenfranchise voters.The state — which was the first in the nation to begin mailing ballots for the November midterm elections — adopted the changes hours before it began mailing out ballots in early September. It now requires local election officials to disqualify otherwise valid ballots that are not sealed in an inner envelope. Election officials are also now tasked with executing a new signature-verification process.Over 81,000 voters in the state have requested absentee ballots already.The changes will result in valid ballots being tossed over immaterial issues, the plaintiffs say, because affected voters may not be able to cast replacement ballots if the original is found to be invalid on Election Day.Prior to the changes, a ballot in an unsealed inner envelope — or mailed in an envelope without the application envelope inside — would still be counted. The state, which has required voters to show ID to vote since 2023, also requires absentee voters to include a copy of photo ID and fill out their ballot in front of two witnesses.The state election board previously banned signature matching but now is requiring it without giving county election boards clear guidance on implementing it, the plaintiffs say.The change doesn’t give absentee voters fair opportunity to cure their ballots, the organizations claim, adding no one knows how long it may take local boards to notify a voter their ballot has been rejected for one of these issues. They want a federal court to step in and prevent the changes from being implemented.“While in theory voters may be able to vote a replacement ballot or vote in person if this occurs, in practice, invalidation of their absentee ballots will almost certainly mean disenfranchisement for large swaths of voters caught up in the state board’s new rules,” the groups say in their complaint.“This state-sanctioned free-for-all will inevitably subject ballots to varying scrutiny between and within counties — resulting in unequal treatment of voters and arbitrary disenfranchisement.”During the Sept. 4 meeting in which the change was approved, state board member Siobhan O’Duffy Millen speculated the new changes could cause 3% of ballots to be discarded — around 9,000 votes, in a state where elections are often decided by very close margins.“The state board’s late-breaking policies threaten to disenfranchise North Carolinians for immaterial mistakes with envelope sealing and based on the arbitrary decisions of untrained election officials reviewing their signatures,” the plaintiffs say in their complaint. They accuse the state of violating the First and 14th amendments, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.The political majority on the state and county election boards flipped last year, after the courts gave Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek the authority to step in and appoint and remove members. The governor previously held that authority for over 100 years, but the Republican majority in the General Assembly reassigned the duties in the 2024 lame duck session, after Democrats won many council of state seats, including the office of the governor.Boliek’s oversight of the election boards has faced scrutiny after local reporting that his elections liaison — who has since resigned — encouraged counties to cut Sunday voting, eliminate an on-campus polling site and advised a county elections board on what the state Republican Party wanted. A Republican election board member in a county outside of Asheville resigned, citing pressure from third parties, while his GOP chair pointed to pressure from Boliek’s office as the reason behind his opposition to a university polling location.Boliek has emphasized that his goal is to run elections “impartially, effectively and securely” and ensure that all eligible voters have access to vote.In 2024, nearly 300,000 North Carolina voters cast absentee ballots. Over 7,000 voters have already voted absentee in the state.A representative for the state board of elections didn’t reply to a request for comment by press time.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads