Any registered North Carolina voter may request an absentee ballot by mail. No excuse is needed to vote by absentee. To request an absentee ballot, complete the State Absentee Ballot Request Form. The form is available on the State Board of Elections website at www.ncsbe.gov. 

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A completed State Absentee Ballot Request Form may be mailed, faxed or scanned and then emailed to the county board of elections.  The contact information for the county boards of elections may be found here:  http://enr.ncsbe.gov/cbesearch/

The State Absentee Ballot Request Form may only be signed by the voter or a voter’s near relative or legal guardian.  A near relative is considered to be a spouse, brother, sister, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, mother-in-law, father-in-law, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, stepparent, or stepchild of the voter.

Once ballots become available, the county will mail the absentee balloting materials to persons who submit valid requests. The balloting materials must be mailed.  The balloting materials may not be faxed, emailed or hand-delivered to the voter. Absentee ballots will be available according to the following schedule:

The name, address and date of birth of the requesting voter must be provided on the State Absentee Ballot Request Form. One of the following types of information to identify the voter must also be provided:

• NC driver license or non-operator’s ID card number;
• the last four digits of voter’s social security number; or
• a copy of one of the following documents that shows name and address: a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document.

Check the schedule for the absentee ballot request deadline.

Members of the military (or their spouses or dependents) who are absent from their counties of residence and United States citizens who are outside of the United States during the election may use the following to request an absentee ballot.

• State Absentee Ballot Request Form to request an absentee ballot. There is a section on the form that permits a military or overseas citizen to qualify for special voting rights under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act(UOCAVA).
• Federal Postcard Application (FPCA), available at www.FVAP.gov. The FPCA is also a voter registration application.

Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot (FWAB), available at www.FVAP.gov. The FWAB is also a voter registration application and the voter’s official ballot. It permits the voter to “write-in” their ballot choices.

A civilian absentee voter must return his or her voted ballot in the container-return envelope provided to the board of elections in enough time for the ballot to be received by 5:00 p.m. on Election Day (11/8/2016). If mailed, the ballot is timely as long as the container-return envelope is postmarked by Election Day (11/8/2016) and received no later than 5:00 p.m. on the third day following the election (Monday, 11/14/2016 – because 11/11/2016 is Veterans Day). If balloting materials are returned in person, only the voter or a near relative may deliver the ballot. Civilian absentee ballots may not be returned by fax or email.

Military and overseas citizens have until 7:30 p.m. EST on Election Day (11/8/2016) to return their voted ballots. These voted ballots may be faxed, emailed or mailed. Additional time is granted for military and overseas citizens' absentee ballots to be received, as long as the voter mailed the ballot by Election Day or started the electronic ballot transmission by 12:01 a.m. on Election Day and the county board receives the ballot by the last business day before the county canvass (11/17/2016).

Write-in lines may appear in partisan or nonpartisan contests on a ballot.

Partisan Contests

For PARTISAN contests, a person must qualify via a petition in order for a line to appear on the ballot in the contest. In the upcoming General Election, there will be a write-in line for the statewide contests of U.S. President and N.C. Commissioner of Labor. There may be other local partisan contests that have a qualified write-in candidate too. If so, those contests will have a write-in line on the ballot. Only a certified (qualified) write-in candidate’s votes will be counted in these contests. Certainly, it is likely that some voters will write-in other names, but votes for these individuals (real or fictional) will not be counted. Qualifying as a write-in candidate also means that the candidate’s name and votes attributed to that name will be listed in the official, final abstract of the election results that is kept by the state for official and historical purposes.

Nonpartisan Contests

For most NONPARTISAN contests, a write-in line will be included for the contest on the ballot. A person is not required to qualify as a write-in candidate by petition in these contests. Votes cast for persons eligible to hold the office (based on age, residency, status of voter registration) will be counted. The types of nonpartisan contests that will have write-in lines include non-partisan board of education contests, Soil and Water Municipal District Supervisor, municipal contests, and special sanitary or water district contests.