NORTH CAROLINA — North Carolina has begun mailing out ballots for the 2026 midterm elections, becoming the first state in the nation to distribute mail-in voting materials to voters.
The mailing coincides with new administrative rules issued by the North Carolina State Board of Elections that restrict which mail-in ballots local election officials can accept.
Under the updated guidance issued by the state board via numbered memos on Friday, county boards of elections must reject any ballot if the inner envelope arrives unsealed inside the outer mailing envelope.
The rules also eliminate any post-election grace period, requiring all mail ballots to arrive at election offices by 7:30 p.m. on Election Night and confirming that hand-delivered ballots may be submitted only by the voter, a near relative, or a legal guardian.
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The State Legislature passed a law during the summer calling for unsealed inner envelopes to be discounted, though lawmakers specified the law would not take effect until 2027.
Hilary Harris Klein, an attorney with the nonprofit voting rights organization Southern Coalition for Social Justice, noted that the state board bypassed that timeframe by implementing the rules immediately through administrative memos.
“Importantly, the legislature did pass a law this summer saying that those ballots should be discounted, but the legislature specified that that law should not come into effect until 2027,” Klein said.
Members of the Republican-controlled board maintained that the memo serves as operational direction for election workers rather than a change for voters.
Stacy Eggers IV, a Republican member of the North Carolina Board of Elections, emphasized that administrative processes at county offices would guide the enforcement.
“The voter experience in casting their ballots will not change,” Eggers said. “This numbered memo is simply guidance, updated guidance. I might add, as to what the board and staff at the county level will do and how they will process things.”
During board proceedings, Francis De Luca, the Republican chair of the North Carolina Board of Elections, called for decorum while discussing administrative changes.
“We need to have order; not everyone just start talking at once,” De Luca said.
Beyond state-level regulations, North Carolina is also engaged in a federal legal battle over voting procedures.
The state’s attorney general, a Democrat, has filed a lawsuit seeking to block proposed federal election rules put forward by the Trump administration, arguing the proposed changes violate rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
North Carolina state officials have less than 24 hours to file a formal response to President Donald Trump’s appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The high court will then review the filings before issuing a decision on the federal election rules.