State Board Changes NC Election Rules in Lead-up to Midterms

The North Carolina State Board of Elections has approved a measure that will make it easier to disqualify certain absentee ballots ahead of the 2026 midterms. Members voted 3-2 along party lines on Monday, July 20.

The measure allows county elections board staff to take further action on ballots with “irregularities.” Examples include not properly sealing a ballot or using the wrong type of envelope. Staff should contact voters, but without appropriate action, the ballots may be tossed.

Republicans say the change will enhance election security. Democratic critics say it will disenfranchise legitimate voters, and could be applied arbitrarily with political motives.

“I think it’s confusing,” Democratic board member Siobhan Millen said. “We’re going to lose perfectly sound ballots due to over-fussiness.”

“I don’t think it’s fussy. I don’t think it’s picky. I don’t think it’s hard,” responded Republican board member Angela Hawkins. Hawkins says voters confused by the container return envelope used in absentee voting may contact their local elections board for clarification.

She pointed out the proposal is legal under current state’s laws.

“If the General Assembly wants to change it, then that’s fine,” Hawkins said.

At the national level, President Donald Trump has slammed mail-in voting, claiming it contributed to “fraud” in the 2020 election. His allegations have not been proven.

North Carolina’s Rules Review Commission, made up of Republican appointees, needs to approve the change before it takes effect.

The approval followed a similar vote held on July 16 in which board members also voted along party lines to endorse a rule that will make it easier for voters’ ballots to be thrown out if they don’t show a photo ID.

As it is now, all five county board members have to agree to throw out a provisional ballot because they think the voter is lying about the reason they do not have photo ID. Under the new rules, bipartisan agreement will no longer be required. Only a majority vote will be needed to throw out a ballot based on belief that the voter lied about the lack of photo ID.

The state board’s three Republicans supported the change, while its two Democrats were opposed.

The rule “feeds into the lie that there’s a ton of voter fraud,” said Democrat Jeff Carmon.

Republican Stacy “Four” Eggers IV said the requirement for a unanimous vote does not comply with state law.

“That was something that was invented out of whole cloth by this board,” he said.

The board received 161 pages of emailed comments about the rule, and 1,506 comments through an online portal, a board lawyer said. Most were opposed to dropping the unanimous vote requirement.

In a statement, state Elections Director Sam Hayes said he didn’t expect more ballots to be rejected under the changed rule.

“What instills faith in elections is adherence to the letter and spirit of the law,” Hayes said in the statement. “As counsel for Speakers (Tim) Moore and (Destin) Hall, I defended North Carolina’s voter ID law in both state and federal court. The requirement of unanimity to reject a reasonable impediment declaration appears nowhere in the statute. That was the result of a prior board taking license and going beyond the mandate of the General Assembly.

“Today, the current State Board of Elections took action necessary to make our rule conform with the law, and I support that decision. The only basis for rejecting a reasonable impediment is if the county board has grounds to believe the affidavit is false, and nothing has changed in that regard. It is a high bar to meet, and I do not expect that this rule change will result in more ballots being rejected,” Hayes said.

The proposed rule now goes to the Rules Review Commission for approval. If the commission approves, the rule would be in effect for the midterm elections.

Ban on amplified music outside NC polling places draws criticism

The new rules for disregarding ballots aren’t the only changes the NC State Board of Elections has wrought. The board also approved a new rule banning amplified sound outside polling places, one that critics say is aimed at discouraging voting by Black and young voters.

When the state board debated the proposed rule in April, members did not mention any specific complaints about music or bullhorns outside polling places. No one spoke in favor of the rule Monday. Written comments on proposed rules will not be released until the comment period ends.

The idea was controversial before it reached the public comment stage. Democrats on the state board voted against putting the proposal before the public for comment.

Speakers at a public comment session on the proposed rule said it would stifle voter engagement activities such as Stroll to the Polls, Souls to the Polls, organized by Black churches, and DJs at the Polls.

Music outside polling places doesn’t disrupt elections, but is a celebration around voting that encourages participation, said Madison Belin of Raleigh, a rising junior at NC A&T State University in Greensboro.

Collective action and civic participation are deeply rooted in HBCU history, Belin said, and events that include music and bring people to the polls are a continuation of that legacy.

No one is asking to disrupt voting or compromise the integrity of elections, she said.

“We are simply asking to preserve the spaces and traditions that make people excited to participate in them. Removing elements that make voting engaging and fun just further inconveniences people and pushes young voters away,” Belin said. “I would hope and pray that is not the goal.”

The in-person comment session, held on June 29, was one of four on proposed election and ballot-counting rules, including the changes reported above.

Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, spoke at all the public comment sessions. He supported the proposed rule changes on photo ID, absentee ballots and recounts but recommended abandoning the rule banning amplified sound.

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Jackson did not center his criticism on race or voter age, but said the proposed rule “does not narrowly serve the state’s compelling interest” in enforcing peace and order in and around polling places. “If the sound is not audible within the voting enclosure, it should be allowed,” he said.

Jackson also recommended rewriting a proposal on when a chief judge at a polling site can tell someone outside to turn down the volume so it can withstand charges of subjectivity.

Brian Kennedy, senior analyst with Democracy North Carolina, said the proposed ban on amplified sound is “in the same spirit” as North Carolina’s previous voter suppression efforts.

The rule targets community-led voter mobilization efforts that bring Black, brown and young voters to the polls, he said.

“Community mobilization events that use music, energy and joy” strengthen democracy, Kennedy said. “These events are not disruptions to the electoral process. They are an electoral process working as it should.”

This article was aggregated from multiple news stories originally published by NC Newsline, part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.