Editorial: Too many mail-in N.C. ballots unfairly rejected, fix it now

CBC Editorial: Friday, April 5, 2024; #8921

The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

Once someone has proven, through the registration process, they are qualified to vote in the United States and North Carolina casting a ballot should simple and efficient.

Ballots voters ballots cast before the polls close should be counted. This is simple, fair and common sense.

But simple, fair and common sense don’t seem to apply for people who vote in North Carolina or the state legislative leaders who make the rules.

During the March primary there were 776 voters who cast ballots by mail on or before Election Day that were received within three days after the election – the former grace period. This common-sense grace period accommodated the likely chance that the postal service might encounter some glitches in the “swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

But due to no fault of the voters, their ballots were not counted. One mail-in absentee ballot received in Iredell County was post-marked Feb. 22, but failed to make it to the local Board of Elections by 7:30 p.m. on March 5, the Election Day deadline since the legislature abolished the grace period last year.  It did arrive within the old grace period.

Is it fair to that diligent qualified voter, who cast a ballot on -- or in fact well before – Election Day to have it trashed through no fault of their own?

How significant might 776 votes cast out of 1.8 million – a seemingly miniscule four-hundredths of one percent (0.04%)? Ask Incumbent Democratic state Rep. Michael Wray lost his primary by a mere 34 votes.  It wouldn’t take many of those 776 votes to have made a difference in that race.

There are statewide May 14 primary runoff elections – with the mail-in voting process already started – to determine the GOP nominees for lieutenant governor, state auditor and Republican nominee in the 13th U.S. House district. Don’t tell those candidates 776 votes don’t matter.

Until last year there was a three-day grace period after Election Day, for mail-in absentee ballots to be received and still be counted. It was an acknowledgment that our postal service wasn’t necessarily perfect and that, within reason, voters should be penalized for matters out of their control – such as glitches in the orderly and timely delivery of mail by the postal service.

In 2009 now Senate Leader Phil Berger, a Republican from Rockingham County, joined the unanimous chorus of his fellow legislators in adopting the three-day grace period.  But last year in a partisan vote Berger and his fellow Republicans overrode a veto by Gov. Roy Cooper -- to abolish it.

The legislature’s action – like too many concerning voting – was aimed at limiting the participation of eligible citizens in selecting their representatives rather than encouraging it.

Voters who cast and submit ballots before the close of the polls on Election Day is owed the reasonable expectation that their votes count. It should not matter whether that official ballot is cast in a polling place or submitted via the U.S. mail. 

Voters who do their part should not be punished, nor their participation denied, because of factors out of their control. It is a nonsensical law failing to recognize, nor seek in some way to compensate for, the fact that voter cannot determine how fast their ballot will move through the postal service to the board of elections.

The General Assembly, as it gathers this spring, needs to re-instate the grace period for receipt of mail-in ballots cast in a timely manner. It is the fair thing to do.

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