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A group of advocacy organizations sued the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Tuesday over new rules governing mail-in ballots, arguing that the last-minute changes will “inevitably disenfranchise” voters.
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The targeted policies were approved earlier this month in a party-line vote by the Republican-majority board on the same day that mail-in ballots were sent out to voters.
The rules make a series of changes to how election officials evaluate returned mail-in ballots. One of the changes — at which Tuesday’s lawsuit took specific aim — requires election officials to discard a mail-in vote if the inner envelope containing the ballot is not properly sealed.
“The challenged provisions impose unnecessary hurdles that eligible North Carolinians must surmount to exercise their most fundamental right, resulting in otherwise valid votes being arbitrarily discarded without any sufficient state interest justifying disenfranchisement,” the complaint says.
The lawsuit, which was first reported by Courthouse News, was filed by the North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans, North Carolina Asian Americans Together, Down Home North Carolina and two individual voters.
It also targets a new provision that requires officials to discard a ballot if the signature does not match the voter’s name on the ballot application. The plaintiffs argue that the rule does not define clear standards for verifying the signatures.
“This state-sanctioned free-for-all will inevitably subject ballots to varying scrutiny between and within counties — resulting in unequal treatment of voters and arbitrary disenfranchisement,” the lawsuit says.
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Republicans have argued that the new rules provide necessary updates to local guidance and would not change voters’ experience in casting their ballots.
In situations where election officials are required to discard mail-in ballots, they are instructed to immediately issue a replacement ballot to the affected voter and contact them about the error.
The lawsuit, however, argues that voters may not receive their replacement ballot in time to get it to election officials by the deadline at 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.
The legal challenge comes as voting is already well underway for the 2026 midterms.
As of Wednesday morning, over 80,000 North Carolinians have requested mail-in ballots and over 8,000 voters have already returned them.
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