[The following are the prepared remarks of Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, at the press availability on Sept. 23, 2024.
Watch press availability (MP4)
Note: Conference starts at 23-minute mark of recording.]
Good morning, everyone! I’m Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections. We appreciate that you all took the time to join us and for your continued work getting accurate information to voters.
The first votes have finally been cast in the 2024 general election in North Carolina!
As of this morning, with 43 days remaining until Election Day, 102 ballots have been returned by military and overseas voters whose ballots were sent to them on Friday.
As allowed under state and federal law, most of these military and overseas voters request, receive, and return their ballots electronically through the State Board’s absentee ballot portal [NC Absentee Ballot Portal]. This is how we already have returned ballots from our military and overseas voters.
And tomorrow, Tuesday, county boards of elections will begin sending absentee ballots to all voters who have requested them so far for this election. That means county boards will place tens of thousands of absentee ballots in the mail to voters over the next couple of days.
As of this morning, county boards have received more than 207,600 absentee ballot requests for this election. This includes more than 19,000 requests from military and overseas voters.
With 43 days remaining until Election Day in 2020, nearly 252,000 ballots had been returned. Of course, voting started earlier in 2020 because there were no delays due to ballot reprinting, and the COVID pandemic led to many more people voting by mail.
And with 43 days remaining until the 2022 general election, more than 6,900 ballots had been cast in that mid-term election. That is, again, because absentee voting started earlier that year.
By the way, in case you weren’t aware, the State Board publishes two absentee statistics reports each day.
[Two daily N.C. absentee statistics reports folders:
- Absentee-By-Mail Request Stats Folder: 2024 General Election
- Absentee and Early Voting Stats Folder: 2024 General Election]
You can also find statistics on absentee ballots requested and absentee ballots cast on our homepage, ncsbe.gov.
If you have questions about absentee data, please contact Patrick Gannon, State Board public information director, at patrick.gannon@ncsbe.gov.
For voters, there is still plenty of time to request an absentee ballot for this election. The request deadline is Tuesday, Oct. 29. However, we encourage voters who wish to vote by mail to request their ballot as soon as possible to make sure there’s enough time to receive a ballot, complete it, and return it to your county board of elections so it is received by 7:30 p.m. on election night, Nov. 5. The easiest way to request a ballot is through the absentee ballot portal on the State Board’s website [NC Absentee Ballot Portal], but voters may also fill out a paper absentee request form [2024 NC Absentee Ballot Request Form in English (PDF)] — also available on the State Board’s website — and return it to their county board of elections.
As for returning your ballot, the U.S. Postal Service is saying to make sure you put your completed ballot in the mail at least a week before Election Day — and earlier, if possible — to ensure it will arrive in time to be counted.
Again, with the exception of military and overseas voters who have a different deadline, ballots must be received by your county board of elections by Election Day. Because of a change in state law, this is different than in past general elections. So, I’ll reiterate that in order for an absentee by mail ballot to count, it must be received by the county board of elections no later than 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. And remember: In addition to returning the absentee ballot through the mail, voters or their near relative may hand-deliver their absentee ballot to any early voting site during the in-person early voting period, or to their county board of elections office from now through Election Day.
And if you requested an absentee ballot but decide you want to vote in person instead, you can do that. Simply destroy or discard your absentee ballot.
Absentee voters may also sign up for the ballot-tracking service BallotTrax, which will send them automated messages as their ballot moves through the system.
Finally, I want to talk about some of the many safeguards in place to secure absentee voting.
[Two resources about the security of absentee voting:
First, election officials only send ballots to registered voters who request them through the absentee portal or on the official paper request forms. On a request, a voter must provide identifying information that is validated before a ballot is issued.
Second, voters must vote their ballot in the presence of two witnesses or a notary public, who must sign the ballot envelope.
Third, and this is new for this presidential election, voters must include a photocopy of an acceptable form of photo ID or fill out a Photo ID Exception Form and return that with their ballot.
When a ballot is returned, the bipartisan county board of elections reviews the absentee ballot envelope and photo ID documents to ensure compliance with all legal requirements. Once a ballot is accepted, the voter is marked in the system as having already voted, so if they try to vote in person, poll workers will not allow them to vote a regular ballot.
I could go on. But put simply, absentee voting is safe and secure in North Carolina, and many laws and processes work together to ensure security in the absentee voting process.
As always, we encourage voters to choose the voting method that best fits their schedule — by mail, in-person during the early voting period, or in-person on Election Day.
Before I take your questions, I just wanted to let you all know that we will have additional press conferences on different topics as we get closer to Election Day on Nov. 5.