North Carolina voters who did not have a witness sign their election ballot will receive a second ballot. | Adobe Stock
North Carolina voters who did not have a witness sign their election ballot will receive a second ballot. | Adobe Stock
North Carolina voters who opted for absentee ballots this year may have to fill out a second one.
By resending mail-in ballots, the North Carolina State Board of Elections is now requiring a witness to sign someone's private absentee ballot for their vote to count.
North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park said that the ballot "cure" process would be in effect Oct, 13 and that the board had set aside thousands of ballots already mailed in that didn't have signatures as "a legal fight over election rules plays out," the Carolina Journal reported on Oct. 19.
Republican legislators have complained that the change resulted from Democrats trying to switch election rules behind a curtain without consent from the General Assembly.
The North Carolina Alliance of Retired Americans filed suit over the more restrictive absentee voting rules, saying that the limits in the bipartisan state election law are too burdensome.
The elections board had approved a settlement to remove the witness signature requirement in September, which also extended the deadline for receiving a ballot to nine days after the election, but two lawsuits subsequently filed challenged the settlement. A federal judge denied the board's attempt to pass a process allowing election staff to count mail-in ballots with no witness signature.
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