The mass surge of by-mail ballot requests in North Carolina is triggering a cascade of legal, political and procedural changes that is reshaping the November election.
So far, almost 70,000 North Carolina voters have requested absentee ballots for the November election, a four-times increase over this point in 2016, according to Catawba College politics and history professor Michael Bitzer.
Among battleground states, North Carolina historically has one of the lowest rates of using vote-by-mail. Bitzer predicts that 30%-40% of votes this year will be cast by mail, compared with 5% in the 2016 election, an increase primarily driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This means that county boards of election are preparing for administrative hurdles they have never faced in a year when voter turnout is predicted to break records.
“It’s going to be a large undertaking, one that no county in the state has ever seen,” said Durham County Director of Elections Derek Bowens.
“It’s going to take some creativity and a lot more resources than what probably have been budgeted for most counties.”