Raleigh -- July 20, 2026: TThe North Carolina State Board of Elections formally adopted new permanent rules governing absentee voting during a virtual meeting Monday, July 20.
The rules were approved in a 3-2 party-line vote, with the board's three Republican members voting in favor and its two Democratic members voting against the changes.
The vote followed a separate meeting held Thursday, July 16, during which the Board approved several other election rule changes. According to board members, the absentee voting rules were considered separately Monday because of an issue involving the public comment process.
The Board said it received approximately 650 public comments through its online portal and an additional 85 pages of comments submitted by email before taking the final vote. However, the Board did not publicly release a summary indicating whether the majority of comments supported or opposed the proposed rules.
What the Rules Change
The new rules do not change who is eligible to vote by absentee ballot. Instead, they establish permanent statewide procedures for how county election officials review absentee ballots after they are returned.
Among other provisions, the rules:
Define what constitutes a ballot deficiency.
Identify mistakes that voters are allowed to correct after returning an absentee ballot, such as missing required documentation or other errors that can legally be cured.
Identify mistakes that cannot be corrected after a ballot is returned. If a ballot is determined to have a non-curable deficiency, it must be rejected and, if time permits under state election deadlines, the voter may be issued a replacement ballot.
Standardize how all 100 county boards of elections process absentee ballot deficiencies.
Republican board members said the changes are intended to create consistent statewide procedures and clarify how existing North Carolina election law should be administered.
Why Democrats Opposed the Rules
The Board's two Democratic members voted against the proposal, arguing that the more detailed standards for determining which ballot deficiencies can and cannot be corrected could result in more absentee ballots being rejected because of technical errors.
Democratic members also expressed concern that a voter who submits an absentee ballot on time could still lose the opportunity to have that ballot counted. For ballots with curable deficiencies, the process depends on election officials notifying the voter and the voter completing the required correction before the legal deadline. If notification is delayed, not received, or the voter is unable to respond in time because of illness, travel, military service, or other circumstances, the ballot is not counted.
For ballots with non-curable deficiencies, the original ballot cannot be corrected. If election officials determine the defect too close to Election Day, there may not be enough time for the voter to receive and return a replacement ballot before voting deadlines expire. In those cases, the original ballot is not counted.
During the rulemaking process, the State Board did not publicly identify evidence of a statewide problem with absentee ballot processing, widespread inconsistencies among counties, or an increase in rejected absentee ballots as the reason for adopting the new rules.
The Board also did not publicly release an analysis estimating whether the rules would increase, decrease, or have no measurable effect on absentee ballot rejection rates.
Democratic members questioned the need for adopting stricter procedural standards when no statewide problem had been publicly demonstrated during the rulemaking process. Republican members maintained the rules were designed to improve consistency across counties rather than respond to a specific failure in the absentee voting system.
The new rules will become part of North Carolina's permanent election regulations governing absentee ballot processing statewide.