What you need to know to vote in North Carolina

Believe it or not, it’s already that time: The 2024 general election begins this week.

The state has begun accepting requests for absentee-by-mail ballots for the Nov. 5 election. And officials will start mailing the ballots on Friday.

There are only 65 days until Election Day, so if you’re planning to vote, this is the time to make sure you’re legally able to.

There are a few big changes to note since the last presidential election in 2020:

• You’ll need to present an approved form of photo voter identification. If you don’t have one, you can still vote by filling out an “reasonable impediment” form explaining why. In that case, you’ll have to vote a provisional ballot.
• There’s a shorter acceptance window for mail-in ballots.They now have to get to your county elections office no later than 7:30pm on Election Day.
• Getting results will take longer than it did in 2020. New laws prevent election officials from tallying early in-person votes till the polls close Election Day. Although the law was written by Republican legislators last year, the short delay it caused prompted conspiracy theories among conservative voters during the primary election this March.

Here’s what else you need to know as the election gets underway.

Registration

How do I register to vote in North Carolina? If you’ve moved to the state, you’ll need to register to vote here. North Carolina offers a lot of options for that.

If you have a North Carolina driver’s license, you were probably offered the opportunity to register to vote through the DMV when you got it. If you didn’t register at that time, you can still register to vote online, but only if you’re a DMV customer with a signature on file there.

Otherwise, you can’t register online in North Carolina — you need to have a pen-and-ink signature on file.

You can get, fill out and submit a voter registration form at your county board of elections. You can also find forms at county offices and libraries, or download one online, print it out, sign it and mail it or deliver it to your county board of elections.

Those who reside in a county but aren’t yet registered to vote there are allowed to register during the in-person early voting period and then cast a ballot on the same day.

When can I register to vote? The deadline to register to vote in North Carolina for the 2024 general election is 5 p.m. on Oct. 11. If you seek to register by mail, the registration form must be postmarked on Oct. 11 or earlier.

You must have lived at an address for 30 days before you can register to vote there.

If you miss the Oct. 11 deadline, you still have the option of using same-day registration during early voting, which ends Nov. 2.

You can also register to vote after the deadline if you become a naturalized citizen or complete a felony penalty period between the registration deadline and Election Day. In North Carolina, people with felony records can register to vote once they’ve been released from prison and have also completed other parts of their sentence, such as probation or parole.

How do I check my registration status? If you haven’t voted in a while, the state might have flagged your registration status. To check on that, or if you can’t remember if you’re registered to vote, the North Carolina State Board of Elections has an easy-to-use voter-lookup website that allows you to check the details of your registration, see a sample ballot, and find out where your assigned precinct is for voting on Election Day.

What if I’ve moved or changed my name since the last time I voted? If you’ve moved or changed your name since you last voted, you can update your registration during early in-person voting. You can also complete and submit an updated voter registration form.

Those same-day registration options during early voting aren’t available on Election Day itself, except for one specific case: If you’ve moved within the same county, you can update your address on Election Day, but to get your correct ballot, you’ll need to either go to your new precinct or the county election office, or vote a partial ballot at your old precinct.

How do I use same-day registration? North Carolina offers same-day registration during the early voting period at early voting sites.

To use same-day registration, you’ll need a driver’s license or other approved form of voter identification, plus secondary documents — such as a bank statement or utility bill — to prove you live at your address. Those are sometimes called HAVA documents, named after the federal Help America Vote Act.

You can find a list of approved photo IDs here, and a list of approved HAVA documents here.

Your county board of elections will mail a postcard to your address to verify that you live there. If the postcard is returned undeliverable, your ballot will be retrieved using its unique identifier number. It will be held while election officials try to contact you to give you another chance to prove that you live at the address you gave them. If they cannot verify that, the county elections board may decide not to count your ballot.

Voting by Mail

North Carolina offers all voters the option of voting by mail without any excuse.

How do I request a mail-in ballot? You can request an absentee-by-mail ballot online from the state elections board. You can also print out a request form and mail or deliver it to your county board. Spanish-language request forms are available here.

To verify your identity, you’ll need to supply a driver’s license number, other approved ID number, or the final four digits of your Social Security number.

After elections workers verify that you’re a registered voter, your ballot will arrive in the mail. You can also sign up for a tracking service called BallotTrax, which will keep you updated as your ballot arrives in the mail.

The state has already begun accepting requests for mail-in ballots. Ballots will be mailed to voters starting Friday. Voters have until Oct. 29 to request a ballot, but state election officials recommend submitting a request earlier.

How do I send in my mail-in ballot? To submit your mail-in ballot, you’ll need a photocopy of your approved voter ID. That goes into the sleeve on the outside of the ballot container envelope. If you don’t have a way to make a copy of your ID, you can fill out the exception form that will come with your ballot.

You’ll also need to sign the ballot container envelope, along with two witnesses or one notary to verify they saw you fill it out. They’ll need to print their names and addresses on the ballot envelope as well.

Then you put the ballot container envelope inside the return mailing envelope. You will need to add postage — $1.77, or three forever stamps – to get it back to your county elections office.

When’s the deadline for mailing my ballot? If you do decide to vote by mail, election officials recommend getting your ballot into the mail at least a week before Election Day.

Unlike in the past three presidential elections, there is no longer a three-day grace period after election day for a ballot postmarked by election day to arrive and be counted. State lawmakers repealed the grace period last year.

This year, your mail-in ballot must be received at your county board of elections office no later than 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5.

If you’re in doubt about whether the mail will get your ballot there in time, you can also hand-deliver it to your county board of elections office or to any early voting site in your home county during the early voting period. Or you can destroy your mail-in ballot and vote in person, either during early voting or at your assigned precinct on Election Day.

Voting in person

How do I vote early, but in person? You can only vote in person in the county where you live. You can cast your in-person ballot during the early voting period or on Election Day.North Carolina’s early in-person voting runs for 17 days, from 8 a.m. on Oct. 17 to 3 p.m. on Nov. 2.

The hours and locations for early voting vary by county. You can look up your county’s information here.

How and where do I vote on Election Day? On Election Day, Nov. 5., polls in North Carolina are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. You’ll need to vote at your assigned precinct. You can find your precinct using the state’s voter look-up tool.

If you’re in line to vote at 7:30 p.m., you will be allowed to vote.

What if I’m overseas or in the military and deployed? Federal and state laws require various exceptions and accommodations for military and overseas voters. You can learn more about those at the NC State Board of Elections site.

I’m a voter with a disability. What kind of accommodations are there for me? States are required by the federal government to ensure that voters with disabilities can cast their vote privately. That includes narration assistance for vision-impaired voters as well as touch screens for those who have difficulty filling out a ballot and other alternate formats. All voting sites also allow curbside voting for the mobility impaired. There is also assistance for voters in care facilities. You can learn more about your options here.

Vote integrity

How do I know my ballot has been received and that my vote will be counted? Many North Carolinians have concerns about whether their vote will be counted. Recent polling from Elon University shows only 48% of North Carolina voters trust the nationwide results in the presidential election will be fairly counted. More locally, 59% said they believe North Carolina will count its votes accurately.

For details on what happens to your North Carolina ballot after it leaves your hands, and how election officials make certain each ballot is counted properly, check out our voter education coverage here.

The state also offers BallotTrax, a service that tracks your mail-in absentee ballot through the postal system and alerts you when it’s been delivered and accepted by your county election board. You can sign up for it when you request a mail-in ballot.

The state also provides a detailed explainer on voting systems and certification.