The new absentee ballots without We the People party and its presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are in process to be printed.
Election offices across the state are now playing catch-up after receiving the North Carolina Supreme Court decision late last week. N.C. State Board of Elections is requiring absentee ballots to be sent to military and overseas voters by Sept. 21 and to general voters on Sept. 24.
“The bad news is it’s a kerfuffle. The good news is we are on top of it and we are doing everything we need to do,” said Jackson County Board of Elections chairman, Kirk Stephens.
At their last meeting, Jackson County Board of Elections director Amanda Allen said her team is pulling unusable ballots and repackage them in a warehouse away from new incoming ballots.
Allen’s office is reprinting 20,000 ballots for Jackson County at a 25% cost-increase due to high demand and quick turnaround.
Swain County doesn’t differentiate their absentee and in-person ballots and has already printed over 10,000.
“We’ll have to reprint them all,” said Swain County Board of Elections director Adam Byrnes over the phone.
Ballot printing is funded by each county election office. North Carolina does not provide direct funding toward the purchasing of ballots or related supplies. Offices are left to request funding from county commission offices.
The new guidelines from the State Board of Elections require absentee ballots be sent to military and overseas citizens Sept. 21. The Board also set Sept. 24 as the date to start sending absentee ballots to other voters who have requested ballots by mail, including those who use the Visually Impaired Portal (VIP) to request and return their ballots. Federal law requires absentee ballots be sent no less than 45 days before election day.
According to the State Board of elections more than 166,000 voters — including more than 13,600 military and overseas voters — have requested ballots in North Carolina. More than 2.9 million North Carolina ballots had already been printed before the Supreme Court decision.
Allen urges absentee voters to stay up to date on the issue. Absentee voters registered in Jackson County should receive comprehensive updates through BallotTrax, an online voter registry service.
Voters can request their absentee ballot at votebymail.ncsbe.gov. The deadline for absentee requests is Oct. 29. Election officials urge voters who wish to vote by mail to request their ballot soon, so it can be completed and returned to the voter’s county board of elections by 7:30 p.m. Election Day — Nov. 5.
Deanna Sipe & Marrah Ste. Marie contributed to the story.
