North Carolina will begin sending out ballots next week after a lawsuit from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delayed the initial distribution, which would’ve made the state first in sending out ballots.
Kennedy won his lawsuit against the state, resulting in them taking his name off the ballot as he had requested. Kennedy did so in order to prevent taking votes away from the candidate he endorsed, former President Donald Trump.
The state’s board of elections announced all 100 counties in the state must send out ballots to eligible military and overseas citizens on Sept. 20 and to other voters on Sept. 24. The lawsuit ultimately caused ballots to go out two weeks late.
“This schedule is only possible because of the hard work of elections professionals across this state that will continue throughout the next week,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said. “Because of them, we expect to meet the federal deadline for ballot delivery, and North Carolinians can finally start voting in this important election.”
Around 166,000 North Carolinians have requested ballots, and estimates show the reprint effort cost the state at least $373,000. The state’s board of elections will prioritize ballots for military and overseas voters and has organized ballot printers throughout the state.
“This plan allows time for the much larger orders of absentee ballots for all other voters to be printed and delivered to the county boards in time for counties to prepare their outgoing absentee ballot packages for mailing on Sept. 24,” the NCSBE release reads.
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North Carolina is an important swing state for both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. The state leaned toward Trump for much of the 2024 presidential election cycle but has become more competitive since Harris became the Democratic nominee over President Joe Biden.
According to RealClearPolitics’s running polling average, Trump leads Harris by 0.4 points in North Carolina, 48% to 47.6%.
