[Editor’s Note: The following is written by Sailor Jones, state director of Common Cause NC, a nonpartisan, pro-democracy organization that advocates for voting rights and government ethics. It is based on voter data obtained through the State Board of Elections as of Saturday, Oct. 24.]
North Carolina has experienced its unfair share of efforts to disenfranchise voters on a mass scale.
It’s hard to forget the state’s 2013 “Monster Voting Law,” a parade of terribles packaged by the Republican legislature to claw back power by slashing popular voting options and safeguards that helped North Carolina elect Barack Obama. Almost every year since, those same politicians have used their power to pack and crack voters in an ever more gerrymandered voting map. Most recently, Jefferson Griffin waged a losing campaign to toss 66,000 North Carolinians’ ballots in order to steal a seat on the state’s highest court.
A county-by-county analysis by Common Cause NC reveals that thousands of voters who submitted ballots by mail are in jeopardy of having their voices silenced unless they take additional action by Election Day.
But in 2026, attacks on voters have seemingly become an ‘inside job,’ with Republican Auditor Dave Boliek and his hand-picked elections board majorities supporting a plan that could boot many North Carolinians’ ballots and help Republicans win at the margins.
After all, it was Boliek who thought no one would notice when he and his staff worked behind the scenes to cut weekend options and deny campus sites in an effort to help Republicans. It was his State Board majority and its Executive Director Sam Hayes that said it was too expensive to provide voter registration forms to groups that have helped voters access the ballot for decades. Instead, they apparently spent those dollars sending intimidating letters to voters as in-person voting began and buying large placards at the polls causing unnecessary confusion on who can use curbside voting.
Director Hayes even endorsed failed legislative changes that would have made it easier to challenge our ballots after elections had ended and would have muzzled county elections officials from, of all things, promoting voter turnout.
The statewide rate is 5.8%, but it is much higher – 7.5% – for ballots processed in the 21 counties where Black and other voters of color comprise a third or more of the registered voters.
But it’s the State Board’s last-minute absentee-by-mail voting guidance that drew national headlines this week. The Board demanded counties spoil mail-in ballots that previously would have counted for small problems with internal ballot envelopes, among other harmless errors.
When Boliek’s Board couldn’t ram through this mandate via official channels because of voter objections this summer, they instead issued it as guidance to counties on the same day mail-in ballots were sent to NC voters for the General Election.
The impact seems immediate.
While mail-in ballots can be spoiled for a variety of reasons, a county-by-county analysis by Common Cause NC reveals that thousands of voters who submitted ballots by mail are in jeopardy of having their voices silenced unless they take additional action by Election Day.
Nearly 4,000 or 6% of the mail ballots processed through Saturday have an issue that could void the voter’s choices. The rate of mail ballots with problems ranges widely, from over 21% in Hertford and Northampton counties to 0% in Burke, Currituck, Scotland and Yancey counties.
The statewide rate is 5.8%, but it is much higher – 7.5% – for ballots processed in the 21 counties where Black and other voters of color comprise a third or more of the registered voters; by contrast, the rate is 5.1% in the other 79 counties.
The rate of ballots with problems is 7.6% in Cumberland (Fayetteville) and Guilford (Greensboro) counties, and 7.7% in Forsyth (Winston-Salem) and Mecklenburg (Charlotte). It’s 5.6% in Durham and Wake (Raleigh) counties.
To date, two thirds of the 3,700 ballots with problems were flatly rejected – or “spoiled” – because of problems ranging from an unsealed envelope to a missing address for a witness. New ballots are sent to these voters, but time is running out for them to be received, completed, and returned to the county elections board by the Nov. 3 evening deadline.
With numbers like that, Boliek may have plotted to help only his party and officially ensnared voters of all political stripes in the process.
If trends hold, Boliek’s new guidance could impact not only local races where margins are historically tight, but also statewide races like the NC Supreme Court contest, which has been decided in the past by less than one vote for every city, town, or village in North Carolina.
Our response is clear — in a midterm where our own State Board of Elections is a source of voter suppression, mass turnout is election protection and voter education and determination is the best medicine.
Even now, county election officials are working tirelessly to guide voters through the process of curing mail-in ballots and providing options for those that can’t.
But because county deadlines to receive mail-in ballots is 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, and the timeline to fix curable deficiencies is the same week, we recommend voters act now during the Early Voting period (ending October 31 at 3 p.m.) to make their voices heard.
If you must vote by mail or have already voted that way, know that you or someone assisting you can call or text North Carolina’s non-partisan voter hotline at 888-OUR-VOTE (888-687-8683).
The hotline can help you understand your options, including walking you through the mail-in process, who can help with your absentee ballot, how to track your ballot online, the various deadlines for voting and fixing ballots, where you can deliver your mail-in ballot in-person, or how you can vote in-person, even if you’ve already requested an absentee ballot or mailed it.
And in an environment where it’s hard to know what or who to trust, a nonpartisan hotline that’s been helping tens of thousands of voters like you for nearly 30 years — hosted by real-life North Carolinians — can be a helpful one-stop shop for mail-in and all voter questions or concerns as your county works hard to administer the process.
But you don’t have to take it from me — try the hotline for yourself — if only so no one can take your vote from you.
