Absentee Ballots

North Carolina election officials knew there would be difficulties during the 2020 election, with the pandemic and a historic rise in absentee-by-mail voting. But new data show these obstacles didn’t lead to a higher rate of rejected mail ballots.

County election boards across North Carolina meet Friday to canvass and certify their election results. In an election where more than one million North Carolinians voted by mail, the ability of the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots on time has been a huge concern.

County boards of election are inching closer to certifying the results of the general elections, but first, at least one board has to address voter challenges.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections says roughly 22,000 absentee mail-in ballots have been returned since Election Day, but state officials say they’re still waiting for more than 94,000 ballots.

As everyone waits to find out the election results Tuesday night, there’s a chance that at least for the presidential election, finding out who won could take some time. That’s because a record number of absentee ballots were used this year — both across the country and here in North Carolina.

More than 4 million North Carolina voters have already cast their ballot, as early voting draws to a close on Saturday, Oct. 31. But after a flurry of lawsuits around absentee ballots in the state, a small pool of voters is struggling to fix problems with their ballots before Election Day.

More than half of registered voters in North Carolina have already cast their ballots as early voting wraps up Saturday. Absentee by-mail ballots are still coming in and the state can count them until Nov. 12 as long as they're postmarked by Election Day. Joining WFAE's "Morning Edition" co-host Lisa Worf as part of our weekly check-in is Mecklenburg County elections director Michael Dickerson.

The Supreme Court will allow absentee ballots in North Carolina to be received and counted up to nine days after Election Day, in a win for Democrats.

For weeks, courts in North Carolina have parsed arguments about how long the U.S. Postal Service should have to deliver ballots mailed by Election Day — three days or nine. The outcome decided by the U.S. Supreme Court could subtly affect every American’s right to vote and shift the balance of power between state and federal courts for decades to come.

South Carolina has already surpassed its record for the number of votes before Election Day. More than 600,000 people have either cast ballots in person or by mail. And there's still a week and a half left to go. WFAE's Lisa Worf talks with York County spokeswoman Beth Covington about how it's going.