Court Delays North Carolina Mail Balloting - How Might It Affect the Election?

Friday, September 6 was supposed to be the first day North Carolina sends mail ballots to all voters who had requested them, officially leading off early voting for the nation.

But RFK. Jr threw a wrench into North Carolina’s plans by requesting his name be removed from the ballot. The North Carolina State Board of Elections said “No", arguing his request would require reprinting 2.9 million ballots already created and delay the start of mail balloting as required by North Carolina law — to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. RFK Jr went to court, where a North Carolina district court agreed with the NCSBE.

Late Thursday night RFK Jr. appealed this decision and the next morning and an appeals court overturned the district court, ordering without comment that mail balloting must be stopped until RFK Jr.’s name is removed from the ballot.

Friday, the NCSBE appealed the decision to the North Carolina Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority likely sympathetic to a man who endorsed Donald Trump. Anticipating an unfavorable ruling, the NCSBE began the process of creating new ballots.

This situation is unusual, but not without precedent. In 2020, the Wisconsin Supreme Court halted sending of mail ballots — after some localities had already sent ballots — over a dispute whether the Green Party candidate should be added. Ultimately, the court ruled Howie Hawkins would remain off the ballot.

Indeed, lost in the North Carolina attention is that yesterday a Michigan appeals court also overturned a district court’s ruling to keep RFK Jr. on the ballot. Hopefully, that Michigan legal dispute will be resolved in a timely manner to avoid ballot disruptions.

Creating new ballots isn’t just a matter of scratching RFK Jr.’s name off the ballot. There are 2,348 different “ballot styles” that will be used for North Carolina’s 2024 general election. A ballot style is the unique combination of federal, state, and local offices and ballot questions appearing on ballots across the state. Election officials must check each ballot style for potential formatting errors. Once the ballot styles are approved then they can be sent to printers, who will then deliver the ballots back to election officials. Election officials will then need to place ballots in envelopes for delivery. Given the last-minute timing of the decision, election officials may need to trash all the envelopes they prepared to deliver to voters.

The ballot creation process will delay election officials in sending out new ballots if the North Carolina Supreme Court upholds the appeals court decision new North Carolina’s mail balloting might be delayed two weeks.

So how many voters may be affected?