Current:Home > NewsNorth Carolina absentee ballots are being distributed following 2-week delay -FundPrime
North Carolina absentee ballots are being distributed following 2-week delay
View
Date:2025-04-15 14:20:50
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina counties started distributing absentee ballots Tuesday for the November general election to those who requested them, roughly two weeks later than anticipated as a legal challenge forced delays.
Election officials in all 100 counties planned to mail out the first ballots to regular state residents starting Tuesday. Ballots to military and overseas voters requesting them — mostly transmitted electronically — went out starting this past Friday.
In all, more than 207,000 absentee ballot requests had been received as of early Monday, according to the State Board of Elections. More than 19,000 had come from military and overseas voters. Some completed ballots already have been returned.
State law directed that the first absentee ballots were to go out on Sept. 6, which would have made North Carolina the first in the nation to send out ballots for the fall elections. But appeals court judges prevented ballots containing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name from going out after he sought his removal as a presidential candidate. That caused election officials statewide to print new ballots and reassemble absentee voter packets.
The board decided to begin the distribution of military and absentee ballots sooner than traditional mail-in ballots to ensure that the state complied with a federal law requiring ballots be transmitted to these categories of voters by Sept. 21.
The deadline to request a traditional absentee ballot by mail is Oct. 29. A law taking effect this year says those mail-in absentee ballots for most voters must be received by election officials in person or through the mail by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. Military and overseas voters have different request and return deadlines.
North Carolina absentee ballots were very popular during the 2020 general election due to COVID-19, with about 1 million such ballots cast. The number fell to roughly 188,000 for the November 2022 midterm election.
veryGood! (885)
Related
- The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
- Man arrested in Jackie Robinson statue theft, Kansas police say
- Unlocking desire through smut; plus, the gospel of bell hooks
- Unlocking desire through smut; plus, the gospel of bell hooks
- Apple iOS 18.2: What to know about top features, including Genmoji, AI updates
- The House just impeached Alejandro Mayorkas. Here's what happens next.
- American woman killed in apparent drug dealer crossfire in Mexican resort city of Tulum
- Second new Georgia reactor begins splitting atoms in key step to making electricity
- Arkansas State Police probe death of woman found after officer
- When is Shane Gillis hosting 'SNL'? What to know about comedian's return after 2019 firing
Ranking
- What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
- Tom Ford's Viral Vanilla Sex Perfume Is Anything But, Well, You Know
- Man arrested in Jackie Robinson statue theft, Kansas police say
- City of Memphis releases new documents tied to Tyre Nichols’ beating death
- Rolling Loud 2024: Lineup, how to stream the world's largest hip hop music festival
- Southern Charm’s Madison LeCroy's Date Night Musts Include a Dior Lip Oil Dupe & BravoCon Fashion
- Looking for love? You'll find it in 2024 in these 10 romance novels
- Inflation is cooling. So why are food prices, from steak to fast-food meals, still rising?
Recommendation
A Mississippi company is sentenced for mislabeling cheap seafood as premium local fish
Looking for love? You'll find it in 2024 in these 10 romance novels
Tom Ford's Viral Vanilla Sex Perfume Is Anything But, Well, You Know
Black cemeteries are being 'erased.' How advocates are fighting to save them
Taylor Swift makes surprise visit to Kansas City children’s hospital
Houston company aims to return America to moon's surface with robot lander
A day after his latest hospital release, Austin presses for urgent military aid for Ukraine
Gun violence killed them. Now, their voices will lobby Congress to do more using AI