Between 19 to 3 days before the day of an election, whether it is the Primary or General Election, all North Carolina counties must open at least one location where citizens can vote early. This is sometimes called “One Stop Absentee Voting” or “In-Person, One-Stop Absentee Voting” because you are voting early in person and you will be “absent” on Election Day. (You can also vote early by mail with an Absentee Ballot as described below.) You do not need an excuse to use Early Voting, rather than vote on Election Day. Early Voting sites are open on different days and hours. Many counties have sites open on Saturdays, some even on Sunday.

You can also register and vote on the same day at any Early Voting site in your county during the Early Voting period (but not on Election Day). See Same Day Registration & Voting for details.

 

Note: Voting early does not delay the counting of your ballot or impair the validity of your ballot. You will be asked to sign a statement that you want to vote early and will not vote on Election Day. While the number of early voters is counted and used to gauge public interest in an election (and the subsequent staffing needs for polling places), the results of early voting are not known until Election Day, when the ballots are tallied and included in the county’s overall election numbers.

In 2007, North Carolina adopted a law that allows people to register and vote on the same day at Early Voting sites during Early Voting periods (19 to 3 days before the day of a Primary or General Election). You can not use Same Day Registration on Election Day.

To use Same Day Registration & Voting:

• Go to an Early Voting Site in your county. To find the location and hours of these sites, please contact your local Board of Elections. Keep in mind most counties do not know the exact locations of their Early Voting sites until about a month before the election.
• Show the election official your proof of residence (see list below).
• Complete a voter registration form.
• Cast your ballot. 

If you want to register at an Early Voting site, you must show election officials an acceptable form of identification as proof of your residence. Here are your choices:

• NC Driver’s License.
• Utility bill, including a bill from an electric, water, gas, telephone or cable company.
• Bank statement or bank-card statement.
• Paycheck or stub.
• Student ID and a document from the school with the student’s address.
• Any local, state, or federal government document showing your residential address, such as a car registration, fishing license, military ID, Social Security letter, tax bill, building permit, etc.

All registrations go through a verification process that includes confirmation of your driver’s license or Social Security number, a check for duplicate names in the statewide registration file and mail verification of the address when your voter card is sent. If your ID or address turns out to be false, your ballot is pulled and will not count.

Note: Using a fake ID or providing false information on your registration form is a felony. 

Click here to download a flyer on Same Day Registration & Voting in North Carolina. This flyer provides more information and can be printed and distributed to encourage others to take advantage of this option.

If you prefer to vote on Election Day, you should NOT go to an Early Voting site. You must vote at your assigned polling place. Your polling place depends on where you live and usually appears in a corner of the voting card you were mailed after you registered to vote. If you don’t have your card (and you do not need it to vote), you can find your polling place here. If you have trouble with your search, click here and follow instructions. Note: if the SBOE server is busy or down, you can also use the search engine on the League of Women’s Vote411.org website to find your polling place.

You can also call your local Board of Elections, give them your address and ask them where you vote. Or click on your County’s name on this list of Board of Elections websites to see if you can easily locate this information yourself.

If you make a mistake and go to the wrong polling place on Election Day, or are unable to make it to your assigned polling place, you can still vote by asking the pollworkers there for a Provisional Ballot. This is called “out-of-precinct” voting on Election Day.

 

Your polling place is not the only place you can vote, however, if you plan ahead. You can always vote early or by Absentee Ballot, if you prefer.

If you are registered to vote and then you move, where you vote depends on how long you’ve been at your new address.  The safest, simplest, and most secure thing is to go to an Early Voting site in your county of residence and vote early.

If you stayed within your county but moved to a different precinct and it has been less than 30 days since you moved, you should vote at your old precinct on Election Day.

 

If you moved to a new precinct in the same county and have been at your new address for more than 30 days, you should vote at your new polling place and request a Provisional Ballot if your name is not on the voter roll. You will be asked to fill out a voter registration/change form when you do this.

If you moved to a different county, then you need to change your registration as soon as possible. You can do this by mail up to 25 days before an election, or by using Same Day Registration & Voting up to 3 days before an election. Each voter is assigned a precinct and polling place based on their residential address. On Election Day, you generally should go to that polling place to vote. However, under North Carolina law, you have the right to go to another polling place in the same county on Election Day and vote by using a Provisional Ballot.

Remember: As a registered voter, you can also vote early or by Absentee Ballot.

You don’t need an excuse to vote by using an Absentee Ballot. Anyone may do so if they feel it is easier or more convenient for them. The procedure has several parts:

Request:  You or a near relative must write your local Board of Elections and request an Absentee Ballot (be sure the request is signed). This request can be made from 50 days to 7 days before the Primary or General Election Day.

Receive Ballot:  The Board will send to the mailing address you provide:

• An Absentee Ballot;
• A return envelope with a certificate statement on it; and
• An instruction sheet.

 

Mark Ballot, Fill out Certificate, Return in Envelope:  You mark the ballot with your choices in the presence of two witnesses who are at least 18 years old and not candidates in the election. The witnesses should not violate your privacy as you vote (unless you need assistance due to a disability), but they must sign the certificate on the return envelope and provide their addresses. Make sure all parts of the form on the envelope are filled out, then insert the Ballot in the envelope, and seal and return it as instructed to your local Board of Elections. To be counted, the Ballot must arrive at least by 5 PM of the day before Election Day.

All Absentee Ballots are held and counted on Election Day as a separate polling place/precinct category in the overall results.

Yes. Here are the specific rules governing Absentee Ballots:

• An Absentee Ballot can be requested by any registered voter. A near relative can also request an Absentee Ballot on behalf of a registered voter. Near relatives include a parent, legal guardian, spouse, sibling, grandparent, child, grandchild, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, step parent or step child.

• A separate Absentee Ballot request must be made for the Primary and General Election, unless you are in the military or if illness or physical disability renders you unable to go the polls during an entire election cycle. Under those circumstances, you can ask for a Primary and General Election ballot with a single request, but you can only ask for Absentee Ballots for elections held in the calendar year that your request is being made in. You will need to renew this request each year

• All requests for an Absentee Ballot should be written entirely by the person making the request (i.e., no form letters, although the request does not actually have to be handwritten) and include the:

• Voter's name.
• Voter’s local address – this address should match the current voter registration address.
• An address where the Absentee Ballot should be mailed to.
• The voter’s date of birth.
• The signature of the voter or the person making the request on behalf of the voter.
• If the request is being made on your behalf by a relative, it must also include their name, address and their relationship to you.
• It is also a good idea to include a phone number or email address in case your Board of Elections needs to contact you.

• Voters outside the U.S. or in the military may have the option of faxing or scanning their Absentee Ballot request and sending it in as an attachment to an email – contact your local Board of Elections for details. An email request must contain all the information listed above, including a signature. Keep in mind that email from other countries is often blocked by spam filters. If you do not receive an acknowledgment after several days, you may want to try another method, such as mailing or faxing in your request.

• If you are registered as an Unaffiliated voter and requesting an Absentee Ballot for the Primary, you may request a ballot for either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. If you do not specifically request a party's primary ballot, you will be sent a ballot that does not have any partisan races on it at all. (Note: If you are registered with a party, you do not have a choice and will automatically be sent the primary ballot for your affiliation.)

• Mail or fax your request to the local Board of Elections in the county where you are registered to vote. Each year, requests are accepted beginning approximately seven weeks before Election Day and ending about a week before Election Day. Call your local Board of Elections for the exact deadlines.

• To be counted, all Absentee Ballots, properly signed by witnesses, must be received by the appropriate Board of Elections by 5 pm on the day before the election.

Where you vote depends on where you call “home.” Under NC law, you have two choices if you are a student who has moved away to attend school:

 

• You can declare your old address (probably your parents’ address) as your home, because that’s where you return periodically; in that case, you may register and vote in your old hometown.

• Or you can declare your new address as your home, because that’s where you return, day after day. In that case, you may register and vote in your new town.

But you do have to choose: It’s a serious crime to vote in two places in the same election.

 

If you are already registered to vote in your hometown and you now live in another community, you can vote by mail by requesting an Absentee Ballot or you can take advantage of Early Voting on a trip home during the Early Voting period.

 

If you want to change your registration to a new address or if you are not yet registered, follow the guidelines outlined in our Registering To Vote section.

Each voter is assigned a precinct and polling place based on their residential address. On Election Day, you generally should go to that polling place to vote. However, under North Carolina law, you have the right to go to another polling place in the same county on Election Day and vote by using a Provisional Ballot. This is called “out-of-precinct” voting on Election Day.

 

You might make use of “out-of-precinct” voting because you don’t have time to get to your right polling place. However, you must vote with a Provisional Ballot because your name will not appear on the voting rolls of this different precinct.

Also, your vote will count for statewide races and items that appear on the ballot at your regular polling place, but not for an item (such as a school board race for a particular district) that is not on your regular ballot.

If the election officials can not find your name on the list of registered voters when you go to vote, or if you encounter another problem, you have the right to receive what is called a “Provisional Ballot.” Provisional ballots are designed for:

• Voters who filled out a voter registration form in their county, but their name is not on the voter rolls for whatever reason, including an administrative error.
• Voters who believe they have registered, but their names are not on the voter rolls.
• Voters who are asked to show identification at the polls but who don’t have a photo ID or other document with them.
• Voters who know they are in the wrong precinct’s polling place but who want to vote there anyway as a convenience, even though it means some items on their home precinct’s ballot may not appear on this precinct’s ballot.
• Voters who question the precinct they are assigned to or who question being denied a chance to vote.

 

In each of these situations, you should be offered a Provisional Ballot. If it is not offered, ask for it. It includes a Ballot and an envelope with a form for you to fill out. The information you provide on the form will be used by the election officials to research your voter registration status or to update your registration information. Depending on what the research shows, your Ballot will count for all the items for which you are eligible to vote.

If you voted with a Provisional Ballot because you did not have a valid ID at the time you were asked to show it, you have until the Canvass Day (generally 10 days after Election Day) to take an acceptable ID to your local Board of Elections.

In all cases, you should be given a toll-free phone number or other way to find out whether or not your Provisional Ballot was counted, and if not, the reason it was not counted. Generally, you can check the status of Provisional Ballots on the State Board of Elections website. If you cannot find out the status of your Provisional Ballot on-line, call your local Board of Elections for how to proceed

If you ask for a Provisional Ballot and you are refused,
please call our Voter Hotline at 1-888-OUR-VOTE.