A federal judge on Monday denied an effort to block North Carolina’s tightened mail-in ballot procedures, allowing the state to enforce the rules through the November midterms. The decision comes after the state board of elections revised its guidelines just before ballots were mailed in September.
Judge Thomas D. Shroeder, writing for the court, said the timing of the challenge was fatal. He noted that the plaintiffs filed their motion too late and that the election is already underway. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly admonished lower courts that they ‘should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election,’” Shroeder wrote. “Here, ‘[t]he election is not merely upcoming; it has already started.’”
The updated rules disqualify ballots where the signature does not match the one on the voter’s application. County election officials are also instructed not to count votes if the inner envelope is not properly sealed.
North Carolina is home to several competitive congressional races this cycle, including an open U.S. Senate seat that Democrats view as their best chance to flip. Nonpartisan election forecaster Decision Desk HQ gives Democrat and former Gov. Roy Cooper an 84 percent chance of defeating Republican Michael Whatley.
After the state board’s decision, Gov. Josh Stein (D) told The Hill that the changes were “a slap in the face to voters” and accused the board of circumventing state law.
Mail-in voting, long a staple of American elections, expanded during the Covid pandemic but has since faced Republican-led restrictions. President Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that mail-in voting is fraudulent, even though he has voted by mail in Florida. Earlier this year, he attempted to alter mail-in voting rules by executive order, but the Supreme Court ruled that the changes could not take effect for the midterms.
Democratic voters appear to be shifting their voting methods. An NBC News analysis found that mail-in ballot requests from North Carolina Democrats are 40 percent lower than at this point in 2022. A September NPR/PBS News/Marist poll showed that only 60 percent of Democrats are confident the U.S. Postal Service will deliver election mail on time, down from 86 percent in 2024.
The ruling is part of a broader national fight over election administration. As states move to ban election betting, and with a record 71% of Americans saying the country is on the wrong track, both parties are intensifying their efforts to shape the rules before voters cast ballots.
