First Votes for 2026 Election Have Been Cast

The first votes in North Carolina’s general elections this fall have already been cast, but last-minute “directives” to county election boards could result in more mail-in ballots from qualified voters being discarded on minor technical grounds. At the same time, the Trump Administration is playing legal ping-pong over its unconstitutional order to the postal service to restrict mail-in voting.

“Directives” Disqualifying Legitimate Votes

On Friday (September 4), county elections boards across North Carolina began sending out the first mail-in absentee ballots to thousands of citizens across North Carolina. At the same time, the NC State Board of Elections (NCSBE) opened an online portal usable by certain eligible voters currently overseas to cast their votes immediately. NCSBE staff have told reporters that several votes had already been cast online before the end of the day Friday. 

We recently reported that provisions of state administrative law had been used to temporarily block formal NCSBE rule changes making it easier to throw out absentee ballots on narrow technical grounds irrelevant to the voters’ identity or eligibility to vote. 

However, at its meeting on Friday September 5, the NCSBE voted to send “directives” to county election boards ordering the immediate implementation of several of the changes which had been blocked by state law just days previously. Opponents of the changes denied that they would do anything to prevent fraud. Instead, they would cause legitimate ballots to be thrown out due to minor errors like putting the signed and witnessed absentee ballot in an incorrect envelope. 

“Today the State Board of Elections approved new ways for mail-in ballots to be rejected on technicalities, including changes that had been put on hold by state law after I joined a number of other North Carolinians in objecting to them,” said Gov. Josh Stein. “The State Board’s decision is a slap in the face to voters who stood up to these changes and a blatant circumvention of the law. North Carolina voters deserve transparency in their elections, not last-minute workarounds that could keep their vote from counting.” 

The NCSBE approved the “directives” on a party-line 3-2 vote with only the Republican members voting yes. “This brazen action by Republican members of the State Board, taken in spite of voters’ objections to block this rule, and as absentee voting begins is a violation of public trust and will result in eligible ballots being spoiled during a high-interest midterm election,” said Sailor Jones, state director of citizen group Common Cause North Carolina. 

Trump Administration Begs for SCOTUS Intervention

Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is appealing to the US Supreme Court to let its illegal rules restricting US Postal Service (USPS) delivery of absentee ballots go into effect immediately. In fact, the Trump Administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the same case twice in just the past five days.

Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court on Thursday (Sept. 3) to let its illegal USPS order go into effect immediately. Instead of doing so, Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson – the high court justice designated to deal with appeals from the region – set a Tuesday Sept. 8 deadline for the plaintiffs in the case to file their arguments. 

Then on Friday, Federal District Court Judge Indira Talwani replaced her “temporary restraining order” halting the USPS rule for a few days while she reviewed the case with a “preliminary injunction” to block the USPS rule from going into effect until the case was ready for trial.

This represents a standard progression of pretrial orders in a complex, high-stakes case. However, Trump’s lawyers used it as an excuse to make a new appeal for Supreme Court intervention on Sunday. Apparently unperturbed, Justice Jackson issued a new order directing the opposing parties to file their responses to the Sunday request by Wednesday Sept. 9 at 4 p.m. 

Breaking NC Election Laws

Implementing the Trump-directed postal service rules would violate several North Carolina election laws according to a warning letter from the civil rights organization, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. This may indicate that legal action against the NCSBE is imminent if that board attempts to implement the requirements currently on hold in the federal court system.

Editor’s Note: For CIB’s non-attorney readers, this rapid-fire volley back and forth to the Supreme Court is not a normal legal procedure. It suggests the president is desperate to hang onto control of Congress. Six members of the Supreme Court have been willing to indulge unprecedented expansions of presidential authority, undermining important checks and balances in our system. Soon, we will see whether Trump’s latest “Hail Mary” is batted down or makes it into six willing hands at the Supreme Court.