The new rules would have eased witness requirements and extended deadlines for absentee ballots. | Stock Photo
The new rules would have eased witness requirements and extended deadlines for absentee ballots. | Stock Photo
A federal judge denied North Carolina's latest absentee voting rules that would have changed witness requirements and extended deadlines for mailed-in ballots, WSPA 7 News reported in October.
U.S. District Judge James Dever blocked the new rules due to concerns that the changes could violate equal protection rights and mitigate the weight of ballots cast under pre-existing rules contained in state law. He also noted that more than 150,000 people had already voted when the state Board of Elections said it was revising the procedures on Sept. 22.
"At bottom, the [state elections board] has ignored the statutory scheme and arbitrarily created multiple, disparate regimes under which North Carolina voters cast absentee ballots," the judge wrote, reported WSPA 7 News.
The new rules would have allowed voters who cast absentee ballots with incomplete witness information to amend the problem by returning an affidavit, rather than having to start the ballot and have it witnessed again. In response to the pandemic, North Carolina legislators updated the law during the summer to require one witness for an absentee ballot.
North Carolina residents were allowed to start submitting their ballots on Sept. 4.
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