Voters who have requested absentees do not need to request a new one
Becky Long
Publisher
First Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sued to get on the ballot in North Carolina and won. Then after a series of litigation he sued to get off it and won.
New ballots will have to be printed in the state without the name of the former We the People Party’s presidential candidate’s name on the ballot.
On Aug. 23 Kennedy withdrew from the race and endorsed presidential Republican candidate Donald Trump in what is expected to be a tight race against Democrat Kamala Harris. With its 16 electoral votes, North Carolina is considered a battleground state in this year’s election.
Absentee ballots were scheduled to begin mailings to qualified voters who had requested them on Sept. 6, but a series of appeals from Kennedy and the state board ended Monday when the court ruled to remove the We The People presidential and vice presidential nominees’ names, according to a release from the state Board of Elections.
Rebecca Hall, director of the Clay County Board of Election said her staff worked through the weekend to prepare should a new ballot be required. She estimated reprinting the ballot will cost Clay County about $5,000, not including coding and other costs.
The exact date when all 100 counties will have new ballots ready to send to absentee voters is uncertain. When that occurs, all counties will begin sending ballots on the same day, explained state BOE spokesperson Patrick Gannon in a news release. This is to ensure voters across the state have the same amount of time to cast their ballots.
Because of the order to reprint ballots, the State Board is preparing for the possibility that North Carolina cannot meet the 45-day deadline in federal law — Sept. 21 — for distributing military and overseas ballots to voters. The State Board has begun discussions with the U.S. Department of Defense to seek a potential waiver of that deadline, if ballots are not ready in all counties by that date.
More than 2.9 million individual ballots had been printed before the court order.
“We will continue to consult with counties and ballot vendors to determine the feasible start date for distributing absentee ballots statewide, mindful of the goal to meet the 45-day federal deadline,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections. “This decision imposes a tremendous hardship on our county boards, at an extremely busy time. But our election officials are professionals, and I have no doubt we will rise to the challenge.”
Through Monday, 146,603 voters, including more than 12,900 military and overseas voters, had requested ballots for the 2024 general election, according to the state BOE.
As far as Clay County, in the November general election there were 1,023 civilian, 15 military and 13 overseas absentee ballots requested. Of those 791 were returned.
In the March 2024 primary, there were 53 civilian, one military and two overseas ballots requested; of those 30 were returned.
The State Board has asked county boards to strictly separate and move to storage all ballots that had been printed with the We The People Party line on them. This is to avoid any possibility that the wrong ballots are sent to voters, according to BOE.
Key dates and deadlines for the 2024 general election in North Carolina:
Oct. 11: Voter registration deadline (5 p.m.).*
Oct. 17: In-person early voting begins; same-day registration available.
Oct. 29: Absentee ballot request deadline (5 p.m.).*
Nov. 2: In-person early voting ends (3 p.m.).
Nov. 5: General Election Day.
Nov. 5: Absentee ballot return deadline (7:30 p.m.).*
Voter registration and absentee voting deadlines are different for military and overseas citizen voters.