RALEIGH, N.C. — A slightly larger slice of North Carolina’s mail-in ballots is being set aside this fall, and state election officials are urging voters to check theirs now while there is still time to fix a problem.
Preliminary figures from the State Board of Elections put the spoiled ballot rate at 3.1% so far in 2026, compared with 2.6% at the same point in the 2022 midterm. When counting wrapped up in 2022, about 2.2% of mail ballots had been rejected. Board spokesman Jason Tyson said the agency expects this year’s final rate to land a bit above that mark.
Much of the change traces to stricter envelope rules the board adopted this year, which give county officials more room to toss ballots over small mistakes. A federal judge declined in September to block those procedures.
Mail voting in North Carolina involves layers. Voters mark the ballot in front of a notary or two adult witnesses, seal it in its own return envelope, sign the back and have the witnesses sign and list their addresses. A copy of a photo ID, or the yellow ID exception form, goes in the clear sleeve on the back, and that sealed envelope then goes inside the outer mailing envelope. Leaving an inner envelope unsealed, putting the ballot in the wrong sleeve or sharing one envelope between two household members can now get a ballot rejected.
Gov. Josh Stein said on social media that the board’s late changes are causing thousands more rejections, and he urged people to vote in person if they can and to seal both envelopes if they vote by mail.
Voters can follow a ballot from printing to acceptance on the state board website or by signing up for BallotTrax alerts. Anyone whose ballot is flagged should call the county elections office to learn how to correct it. A voter with an unaccepted mail ballot may also simply vote in person during early voting, which runs through Oct. 31, or on Election Day.
Mailed ballots must reach the county board by 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 3. The old three-day grace period for ballots postmarked by Election Day no longer applies, and return postage this year is $1.98. Through Tuesday, almost 925,000 North Carolinians had already voted, with in-person early turnout up nearly 50% from 2022.
Section: More Raleigh NC politics news
Filed under: Raleigh NC Politics News
