Under the Dome: Voting starts today for the 2024 primary election

Kyle Ingram
·4 min read

Hello and welcome to your Under the Dome newsletter. Kyle Ingram here.

I know 2024 just started this month — but it is already time to start thinking about elections. November may be a while away, but the primary election is just around the corner and voting officially starts today.

Primary voting starts today

Over 5,000 North Carolinians have requested absentee ballots for the March 5 primary election, and those ballots begin going in the mail today.

That makes today the official start of primary voting, with less than two months till the election.

“We encourage all eligible primary voters to plan how, when, and where you will cast your ballot, and to make sure you have an acceptable form of photo ID for voting,” Karen Brinson Bell, director of the State Board of Elections, told reporters on Thursday.

Voters have until Feb. 27 to request an absentee ballot. Due to a new law, absentee ballots must be received by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day for the vote to be counted. Previously, there was a three-day grace period after Election Day for absentee ballots to be counted.

Early in-person voting begins on Feb. 15 and goes until March 2.

Voting rights groups allege inconsistency in voter ID implementation

The state’s new voter ID law went into effect last year after the state Supreme Court’s new Republican majority overturned a decision that had struck it down.

The 2023 municipal elections were the first test of voter ID since 2016, when a similar law was briefly in effect.

A letter from the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Democracy NC and Common Cause NC alleges that some county boards carried out this requirement inconsistently last year.

State law says that voters without an ID can fill out an ID exception form and cast a provisional ballot. Their vote will be counted unless the county board unanimously agrees that the information filled out on the form is false.

However, the letter, which was sent to the state board this week, claims that the Guilford County Board of Elections “relied on speculation and personal opinion about the reasonableness of the voters’ explanations” to challenge several ID exception forms. The board ultimately counted the votes, the group says.

The letter goes on to say that the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections rejected 30 ID exception forms “without specifying any grounds for deeming them false.”

The groups call on the state board to clarify the rules related to voter ID, specifically by directing county boards to only consider factual falsity when rejecting an exception form, rather than reasonableness.

“The municipal elections were the first roll-out of photo ID and gave us an opportunity to understand if our guidance was well-understood by the counties and gives us an opportunity to give them further direction,” Brinson Bell said about the letter. “We’ll be doing that and have done that already, so we welcome the input.”

According to data from the state board, 484 voters cast a provisional ballot in the November municipal elections because they lacked an ID. Of those, 228 ballots were not counted — most of which were denied because the voter did not fill out an ID exception form and did not bring a valid ID to the county board after casting their ballot. There were 43 ID exception forms that were denied.

Important voting dates and deadlines

The State Board of Elections also shared this list of important dates:

“Here are key dates and deadlines for the 2024 primary election in North Carolina:

  • Jan. 19: County boards of elections begin mailing absentee ballots to eligible voters who have submitted an absentee ballot request

  • Feb. 9: Voter registration deadline (5 p.m.)

  • Feb. 15: In-person early voting begins; same-day voter registration available

  • Feb. 27: Absentee ballot request deadline (5 p.m.)

  • March 2: In-person early voting ends (3 p.m.)

  • March 5: Primary Election Day

  • March 5: Absentee ballot return deadline (7:30 p.m.)

  • March 15: County boards of elections primary canvass meetings (11 a.m.)

  • March 26: State Board of Elections primary canvass meeting (11 a.m.)

Voter registration and absentee voting deadlines are different for military and overseas citizen voters.”

That’s all for today. Check your inbox on Sunday for more #ncpol news.

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