It's here. Voters are now at the starting line of the 2024 election season with absentee ballots hitting the mail beginning Friday.
Elections officials in North Carolina have Friday marked on their calendars as the day to start the mail-out of absentee ballots to voters who requested them to choose candidates for president on down without having to do so in person in advance of or the day of the Nov. 5 general election.
Nash County Board of Elections Director John Kearney, in a phone interview Wednesday morning, said that he and his team so far had received 580 requests for absentee ballots to go out Friday.
Kearney said that the bulk of those requests had been made by voters via the N.C. State Board of Elections’ online portal and that some of those requests had been made in person at the county board of elections office.
“As a matter of fact, we just had a couple in here a while ago filling out the forms,” Kearney said.
He also said that some of the requests are holdovers from party primary contests because a voter with a medical condition can continue to receive an absentee ballot through the remainder of the calendar year.
He made clear that one cannot compare the current number of requests for absentee ballots so far with the pattern of the 2020 presidential election, when masses of people voted absentee amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Nash County Board of Elections data, 5,668 absentee votes were found to be valid in the 2020 presidential election year compared to 1,040 in the 2016 presidential election year and 1,466 in the 2012 presidential election year.
Generally, absentee ballots give eligible voters the chance to cast a ballot via mail. People who travel or leave the area for extensive periods, people with medical issues or disabilities, or people who do not want to vote in person can all participate in the process of voting via absentee ballots.
A near relative of a voter can request an absentee ballot for that voter, with an example being a parent who has a daughter or a son attending a college or a university. A person also can request a ballot for a voter who is disabled.
Because a voter in North Carolina must have photographic identification at the ready to be able to cast a ballot, when an absentee ballot is mailed out, instructions are included to clarify how absentee voters provide that photo ID.
Specifically, Kearney said that an absentee voter can make a photocopy of his or her identification or can claim exemptions such as objecting for religious-based reasons or lacking transportation to be able to get such identification.
Oct. 29 is the deadline for one to be able to request an absentee ballot. To be counted, the ballot must arrive at the respective county board of elections office by 7:30 p.m. the day of the election.
Kearney also said that voters can change their minds after requesting an absentee ballot and can instead vote in person as long as they do not mail in the absentee ballot.
The in-person early voting period is set to start Oct. 17 and extend to Nov. 2.
Officials at the Edgecombe County Board of Elections Office said via email Wednesday afternoon that 166 requests for absentee ballots had been made.
According to the Edgecombe County Board of Elections Office’s data, 2,399 absentee votes were found to be valid in the 2020 presidential election year compared to 188 in the 2016 presidential election year and 101 in the 2012 presidential election year.
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