North Carolina will start mailing absentee ballots late subsequent week after a lawsuit from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delayed their distribution.
On Friday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections introduced that every one 100 counties should ship ballots to eligible army and abroad residents on Sept. 20. Ballots shall be despatched out by Sept. 24 for all different voters who’ve requested ballots by mail.
“This schedule is just doable due to the arduous work of elections professionals throughout this state that may proceed all through the following week,” stated Karen Brinson Bell, govt director of the State Board of Elections. “Due to them, we count on to satisfy the federal deadline for poll supply, and North Carolinians can lastly begin voting on this necessary election.”
The Tar Heel state was poised to ship ballots out on Sept. 6 earlier than the previous presidential candidate successfully sued to get his title off of the November poll after dropping out of the competition. This ruling pressured state election officers to scramble and reprint the ballots.
As of Thursday, greater than 166,000 North Carolina voters, together with greater than 13,600 army and abroad voters, had requested ballots. Preliminary estimates present the reprint effort price the state at the least $373,000.
The election physique stated it should prioritize requested ballots for army and abroad voters resulting from it solely making up about 8 p.c of absentee requests. State Board employees additionally organized on-demand poll printers to be positioned all through the state to make sure ballots are printed earlier than the Sept. 20 deadline.
“This plan permits time for the a lot bigger orders of absentee ballots for all different voters to be printed and delivered to the county boards in time for counties to organize their outgoing absentee poll packages for mailing on Sept. 24,” the NCSBE launch reads.
