CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina voters hoping to vote by mail in the 2020 election are down to their last day to request an absentee ballot from the Board of Elections or they must vote in person.
The deadline to request an absentee ballot in North Carolina is Tuesday, October 27. Voters who receive an absentee ballot by Tuesday will be allowed to submit those ballots to be counted. Absentee ballots sent by mail but be postmarked on or before Election Day, which is Tuesday, November 3. An appeals court ruled last week that North Carolina must accept any absentee ballots received by Thursday, November 12, so long as they're postmarked by Election Day. Previously, the latest absentee ballots would be accepted in North Carolina was Friday, November 6.
Of the more than 7.3 million registered voters in the Tar Heel State, over 2.5 million have already cast a ballot through early voting. Another 1.4 million absentee ballots have been requested, with 800,00 absentee ballots cast thus far.
With the deadline looming for absentee ballots, North Carolina is still on pace for record early voting. In Mecklenburg County, for example, there were 25,254 absentee ballots sent by mail. So far in 2020, with a week to go still, there are 86,318 ballots being sent in the mail.
If you want to request an absentee ballot, you should go to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website. When filling out your ballot, voters will want to follow the instructions completely. One of the biggest reason for invalid absentee ballots is voters failing to make sure they have a witness signature.