New mail ballot regulations in North Carolina are resulting in the rejection of a growing number of ballots, according to voting rights advocates. The groups have urged voters to monitor the status of their mail ballots or consider voting in person to ensure their votes are counted.
The controversy centers on a new requirement that voters must seal not only the outer envelope containing their mail ballot but also an inner envelope that encases the ballot itself. This rule was detailed in a memo issued by the North Carolina State Board of Elections on September 4, the same day election officials began mailing ballots for the November 3 midterm elections.
Common Cause North Carolina and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice analyzed data from 27 of the state's 100 counties and found a statewide ballot rejection rate of approximately 3 percent, with some larger counties experiencing rates two to three times higher. The increase in rejected ballots has raised concerns due to the typically narrow margins in North Carolina elections and a highly competitive Senate race this cycle.
Before this guidance, county election officials accepted ballots with unsealed inner envelopes as long as the outer envelope was properly sealed. The inner envelope measure was introduced in 2023 to comply with a new voter identification requirement, which mandates voters include a copy of qualifying ID in a sleeve outside the inner envelope. The State Board of Elections, which gained a Republican majority last year, now requires that ballots with unsealed inner envelopes be rejected as a “deficiency.”
Hilary Harris Klein, senior counsel with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, observed during a ballot canvassing meeting in Guilford County that officials were discarding ballots with unsealed inner envelopes despite no evidence of fraud or tampering. She criticized the board for adopting what she characterized as a stricter stance that leads to ballots being discarded unnecessarily.
Gerry Cohen, a member of the Wake County Board of Elections, said approximately 2.5 percent of ballots had been rejected due to unsealed inner envelopes during the first three weeks of mail voting, although that rate decreased slightly to about 2 percent more recently. Wake County, the state’s largest, has received roughly 8,000 mail ballots to date. Cohen acknowledged the new regulations have increased rejection rates.
Legal challenges to the State Board’s policy were filed by voting rights organizations represented by the Elias Law Group, whose chairman Marc Elias founded Democracy Docket, a group aligned with the Democratic Party that tracks election litigation. However, U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder declined to block the guidance, citing the plaintiffs’ delayed response—filing the lawsuit 18 days after the memo—and the practical difficulties of altering election procedures at this late stage. He noted that voters whose ballots had been rejected were still eligible to cast ballots through replacement mail ballots, early in-person voting, or on Election Day.
Election officials, including State Board of Elections Executive Director Sam Hayes, defended the rules as essential to maintaining election integrity and emphasized the board’s commitment to voter participation. The board reported a slight increase in rejected ballot rates this year, from 2.6 percent in 2022 to 3.1 percent in 2023, highlighting that ballots may be rejected for various reasons and urging voters to submit ballots promptly.
Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, expressed frustration with the board’s guidance and called on voters to ensure they follow the sealing requirements or vote in person. “It’s infuriating,” Stein said on social media, urging North Carolinians to make a plan to vote and to carefully follow instructions to avoid disenfranchisement.