A federal judge has refused to halt two absentee ballot requirements set by North Carolina's Republican-majority elections board, a win for the board and for the Republican Party committees that joined the case to defend the rules. Voters casting mail ballots in the November election must still sign their own name and return the ballot in a sealed inner envelope.
U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder of the Middle District of North Carolina denied the challengers' request for a preliminary injunction on Monday in a 72-page opinion. Advocacy groups and two voters had asked him to stop the State Board of Elections from enforcing its signature verification and sealing requirements, which the board approved on Sept. 4, the same day the state began mailing absentee ballots.
Much of the decision rests on the Supreme Court's warnings against rewriting election rules midstream. "The Supreme Court has repeatedly admonished lower courts that they 'should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election,'" Schroeder wrote. In this case, he said, "the election is not merely upcoming; it has already started." Absentee voting had begun and early voting was underway.
He also held the timing of the suit against the challengers. They waited 18 days after the board issued its guidance to sue, and did not seek an injunction until the day before counties were to begin counting absentee ballots, he wrote.
Beyond those problems, Schroeder found that the groups had not made the "clear showing" the law requires that they are likely to succeed on the merits. The plaintiffs, he wrote, were challenging "the State Board's execution of statutory mandates without disputing the validity of the underlying statutes." Both requirements are spelled out on the absentee ballot materials, and neither, in his words, "is burdensome, much less unduly so." A voter who runs afoul of either one is promptly notified and can either submit a replacement absentee ballot or vote early or on Election Day, the judge noted.
Sam Hayes, the board's executive director, said the agency was pleased with a decision "allowing the State Board's absentee voting procedures, which are consistent with statute, to remain in place." The board has operated with a 3-2 Republican majority since spring 2025. The Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party entered the case as intervening defendants under an Oct. 9 order and defended the requirements, which they described as "tiny provisions" meant to secure election integrity.
The suit was filed Sept. 22 by the North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans, North Carolina Asian Americans Together, Down Home North Carolina and voters Vaeme Afokpa and Raquel Nelson, who are represented by the Elias Law Group. They sued the state board along with the Durham and Guilford county election boards. In their filings they argued that the board had rushed the policies through "by a party-line vote after only 30 minutes of discussion and no public input," and that the two requirements together would "invalidate thousands of qualified voters' ballots in the November election unless enjoined." Their complaint called signature matching "notoriously fraught with error." Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, told The Hill after the board acted that the changes were "a slap in the face to voters" and that the decision circumvented state law.
Some county officials say ballots are already being rejected under the sealing rule. Carolyn Bunker, a member of the Guilford County elections board, said that upward of 2% of the ballots her county received over three weeks were thrown out because the inner envelope had not been properly sealed, according to Democracy Docket, which reported that more than 30,000 absentee ballots had been cast statewide. The site was founded by Marc Elias, whose firm represents the plaintiffs.
Monday's ruling decides only the request for emergency relief. The case continues, with the defendants' answers due Dec. 1. The groups had asked the court to block the requirements "in the upcoming election and all future elections." The Republican committees, in their motion to intervene, called the case "the current iteration of a years-long dispute" over how North Carolina handles mail ballots from voters who do not follow its statutory ballot security requirements. Republicans sued in 2024 over mail ballot rules issued when the board had a 3-2 Democratic majority.