After delay, absentee-by-mail ballots go out to NC military, overseas citizens

The North Carolina State Board of Elections has started sending absentee ballots to military personnel and citizens living outside the country who requested them.

The ballots are going out two weeks later than planned after a legal squabble to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name from the ballot.

Political scientist Michael Bitzer of Catawba College has been studying the trends of voting methods in North Carolina. 

He says just under 20% of voters used absentee-by-mail in the last presidential election when the country was in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic. By 2022, that number had dipped back to about 5%, near the average from previous elections, Bitzer says.

And he says this year’s level may be even lower.

”Simply because now voters who use absentee-by-mail balloting have to include a copy of a photo identification," he says. "And that adds another layer of what some people would say [is] a burden to voting by that method.”

More than 190,000 North Carolina voters have already requested an absentee ballot, elections officials say. The deadline to request one is October 29.