Election workers process ballots (Carl Payne for Colorado Newsline)
A total of 2,382 North Carolina voters saw their ballots rejected this November because they arrived in the three days after Election Day, according to new data from the State Board of Elections. But those votes would have counted if not for a law passed by the General Assembly in 2023 ending the three-day grace period for late-arriving ballots.
While slightly more of the voters who saw ballots rejected were registered as Democrats than Republicans, at 692 and 536 respectively, nearly half came from unaffiliated voters, who cast 1,113 of the late ballots. The final 41 came from voters registered with third parties, such as the Green Party.
That’s about three times the number of ballots rejected within that three-day span during the 2024 primary election, when the state saw nearly 800 absentee ballots turned down. The grace period was in place for more than a decade, having been established in 2009 with bipartisan backing.
The racial breakdown of the late ballots was similar to that of the electorate, with about 66.9% from white voters, 13.6% from Black voters, 4.5% from Asian voters, 9.8% from voters reporting no racial designation, 4.2% who reported “Other,” and less than 1% from voters who identified as Indian American or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or two or more races. 3.9% of the voters whose ballots arrived during the former grace period identified as Hispanic or Latino.
More than a fifth of those ballots were cast in Wake County, which saw 514 arrive during what would have been the grace period for absentee ballots. Carteret and Durham counties were second and third, with 162 and 161 late ballots, while Iredell, Buncombe, New Hanover, and Forsyth counties each had more than 100 as well. Despite being home to the second-largest population in the state, Mecklenburg County received only 14 late ballots from Nov. 6 to Nov. 8. Twnty-five counties reported no late-arriving ballots at all.
Counties that were part of the disaster declaration for Hurricane Helene saw 390 ballots rejected in the three days following the election, with Buncombe leading the way at 141. A bill proposed by Rep. Caleb Rudow (D-Buncombe) in the wake of Hurricane Helene would have restored the grace period for counties affected by Helene, but the bill was rejected in a 44-68 vote on Oct. 9. All Democrats present voted for that bill, and all Republicans present voted against it. Other changes passed by the General Assembly relaxed restrictions on returning absentee ballots in the western part of the state due to the disaster.
While the presidential race would not have been affected by the inclusion of these ballots, as Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris by a margin of nearly 200,000 votes, the excluded ballots may have been enough to shift some of the tightest down-ballot races this election. Judge Jefferson Griffin lost the razor-thin state Supreme Court race by just 734 votes, less than half the total of ballots excluded due to lateness. Similarly, in the closest state Senate race, Democrat Terence Everitt won by just 134 votes.