US Supreme Court rules NC absentee ballots can be received and counted up to 9 days after Election Day

The US Supreme Court refused Republicans' request to overturn a decision by the State Board of Elections to extend the period from three to nine days because of the coronavirus pandemic, with a deadline of November 12. An absentee ballot received after 5:00 p.m. on Election Day will be counted only if they are postmarked on or before Election Day and received by mail no later than 5:00 p.m. November 12.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat whose office defended the deadline extension in court, hailed the high court's decision in a statement.

"North Carolina voters had a huge win tonight at the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court upheld the State Board of Elections' effort to ensure that every eligible vote counts, even during a pandemic," he said. "Voters must have their mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, but now we all have certainty that every eligible vote will be counted. Let's vote!"

Staff review the absentee container-return envelope for completeness when it is returned to the office. Returned absentee ballots are approved at absentee board meetings that occur beginning five weeks before the election. Approved ballots are inserted into the voting machine at the board meeting, but the results are not tabulated and reported until Election Day.

“We do not anticipate any delays in election night unofficial results due to absentee by mail ballots,” said Greene County Board of Elections Director Trey Cash. “Our goal is to have all of our election night unofficial results posted by midnight.”

Absentee ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day and received by the county board of elections by the return deadline, as well as provisional votes, will be added to the results as they are approved by County Boards of Elections during the canvass period after Election Night. Under state law, the State Board, by a majority vote, may extend voting hours at a polling place if polls are delayed in opening for more than 15 minutes or are interrupted for more than 15 minutes after opening. The State Board may extend the closing time by an equal number of minutes.

“All Election night results are unofficial, it takes ten days after election day to audit results and to perform a reconciliation to make election results official at Canvass,” said Cash.