County voter registration doesn’t mirror rest of
the state
By Becky Long
Publisher
Clay County Board of Elections and the rest of the state will soon start mailing out absentee ballots after a 14-day delay because the courts determined ballots must be reprinted without the names of We the People presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Military and overseas ballots account for only about 8 percent of absentees. Because it is a smaller group, these will be the first to go out to voters on Sept. 20. The rest of the absentee ballots can start being mailed to voters on Sept. 24.
Rebecca Hall, director of the Clay County BOE said she expects to have the new ballots back from the printer and ready to mail to voters on time.
To date Clay County BOE has received almost 200 total absentee ballot requests, according to Hall. Statewide there have been 174,581 absentee ballots requested.
In North Carolina any qualified registered voter can vote an absentee ballot after submitting a request for one.
Hall said if a voter has already submitted a request for an absentee ballot, it is not necessary to resubmit another one. Absentee ballot requests can be sent to the BOE until Oct. 29.
The voted ballot must be returned by 7:30 p.m. election day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, but voters are encouraged not to wait until the last minute.
Preliminary estimates show that costs to reprint ballots vary widely. In Clay County the estimate for reprinting the ballot is $5,000, according to Hall.
“That is for ballots and no extra workers as long as ballots are here in enough time for Patty [Swanson] and I to prepare them ,” Hall said. “If it is close to the 24th I will bring in someone to help.”
Estimates range from a few thousand in some smaller counties to $55,100 in Durham County and $300,000 in Wake County, home to the most registered voters in the state, according to the state BOE.
Across the state, election boards were prepared to send absentee ballots out on Sept. 6, the deadline under state law. However, rulings by the N.C. Court of Appeals and N.C. Supreme Court required election officials to remove the We The People party line candidates presidential nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and vice-presidential nominee, Nicole Shanahan.
Kennedy withdrew from the presidential race Aug. 23 and threw his support behind former president, Republican candidate Donald Trump who is running in a close race against Democratic Party candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
If you’re planning to vote in this year’s election, the last day to register is Oct. 11.
Changes in registration county-wide have been slight over the past few weeks, growing from 10,132 to 10,155 between Sept. 3 and Sept. 16. The Republicans added 23 new voters to their rolls, upping its registration to 4,978.
In the same period, the Democrats lost one registration and now stand at 1,369. Unaffiliated registration increased by seven for a total of 3,748 registered voters.
In addition, the Libertarians lost one and Justice for All gained it’s first and only registration. The No Labels Party is unchanged with two registrations. The Constitution Party has no one registered here .
Registration across the state paints a different picture than Clay County.
Unaffiliated voter registration ranks at the top on the state level with 2,882,110 followed by Democrats at 2,408,703 and Republicans with 2,283, 436 registered voters. Libertarians rank fourth with 49, 656, according to the state BOE.
By gender, statewide there are 3,229,638 men and 3,790,115 women registered to vote.