GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Super Tuesday ballot has plenty to draw voters, with primaries for governor and president in a swing state that will be among the most closely watched in November.
But first, voters must deal with a long list of new laws pushed by Republican lawmakers to make sure they can cast their ballots — and that they will be counted.
This will be the first statewide election requiring voters to provide a photo ID to vote in person due to a 2018 law that had been delayed by lawsuits. A separate law added a requirement that voters who cast their ballot by mail include a copy of their photo ID in the envelope. Yet another change approved last year says any mailed ballot received after Tuesday won’t be counted, eliminating the previous three-day grace period for ballots postmarked by the day of the election.
All this has landed on local election officials, who must not only work the new rules into their election preparations but also educate voters on how to navigate them.
“If you don’t know if you’ve got the right kind of ID, just bring everything you got,” said Charlie Collicutt, elections director in Guilford County, home to some 377,000 registered voters. “Dump your purse out and we’re going to find if one of your IDs works. And if it doesn’t, we got a process for you.”
His advice to voters: Be persistent and don’t let the new rules deter you from casting a ballot.
The changes in North Carolina were among the most extensive state voting reforms passed last year and continue a trend among Republican state legislatures, many of which have passed laws since 2021 adding new voting restrictions. The laws were pushed through after former President Donald Trump began falsely claiming that widespread fraud cost him reelection, claims that have resonated with many Republicans.
Democrats in North Carolina and elsewhere have criticized many of the new laws…
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