Student Voting Guide | North Carolina
Registration
http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/ (registration form available online)
The regular voter registration deadline is 25 days before Election Day, and mail-in forms must be postmarked by this deadline.[1] Registration forms are also accepted via fax and email, but only if the original form is received by the county board of elections no later than 20 days before the election.[2]
You can also register to vote and vote at the same time during early voting at the county board of elections office and additional sites during the two calendar weeks before Election Day.[3] Called “One-Stop Absentee” voting, this early voting and same-day registration period extends from nineteen days before the election to three days before the election.[4] Check with the county elections office as to the location and hours of operation of these additional One-Stop Absentee voting sites. If you are registering at the One-Stop Absentee voting sites, you will need to bring ID with you to prove your residence address (see below for the kinds of ID that are accepted).[5]
North Carolina allows preregistration, which means you can register to vote when you are 16; you will be automatically registered when you turn 18.[6] You can also vote in a primary election if you will be 18 by the next general election.[7]
Residency
At School. Students attending school in North Carolina should be able to register and vote at their school address if they meet the following requirements. North Carolina law clearly states that if you intend to make your school community your home during the time you are in school, and have no intent to move back to the address where you lived before attending school, you can claim your school community as your residence and use that address to register to vote.[8] You do not have to intend to stay in North Carolina after graduation or have any definite plans, as long as you do not intend to return to your former home.[9]
At Home. Students who lived in North Carolina before moving elsewhere to attend school, and who wish to establish or keep their North Carolina voting residency (i.e., at their parents’ North Carolina address), should have no problem doing so unless they have already registered to vote in another state. Like all states, North Carolina allows students to keep their voting residency even if they move out of the district to attend school, and the only way you will lose this residency is by establishing residency in a new state. While registering to vote in another state is not automatically considered an abandonment of your North Carolina residency, some judges or officials might view it as such. Casting a ballot in another state is considered an abandonment of residency under North Carolina law,[10] and students who have voted in other states will have to re-establish residency if they wish to vote in North Carolina.
Challenges to Residency. Your registration should not be challenged based on your residency, but if it is, you will have the right to participate in the challenge hearing process and appeal any decision in court.[11]
In addition, your eligibility to vote based on residency can be challenged when you are at the polls by any other voter who is registered in your precinct; if the challenge is upheld by poll workers, you will have to vote a challenged ballot, but you can appeal to court to have your ballot counted.[12]
Identification
Generally, North Carolina voters do not need to show ID at the polls, but there are some exceptions. If you register and vote at the same time through One-Stop Absentee voting (see above), you will need to show ID to prove your address. If you are a first-time voter who registered by mail and whose identifying numbers (North Carolina driver’s license or non-driver’s ID number; last four digits of Social Security number) have not been verified by the state, you will need to show ID when you vote in person or when you cast an absentee ballot.[13] If you have to provide ID under this rule, you will be notified by the county.
For voters registering and voting through the One-Stop Absentee process, you will have to show ID that has your name and address, such as: a North Carolina driver’s license with current address; a utility bill with name and current address (including a telephone or mobile phone bill, an electric or gas bill, a cable television bill, or a water or sewage bill); a document with your current address from a local, state, or U.S. government agency (including a government-issued photo ID, a military ID, a hunting or fishing license, a tax bill, your car registration, a naturalization certificate, a document from a public housing or social service agency, a check, invoice, letter from a government agency, or a birth certificate); a student ID along with a document from your school showing your name and address; a paycheck or paycheck stub or W-2 from your employer; or a bank statement or bank-issued credit card statement.[14]
For first-time voters who register by mail and whose identifying numbers have not yet been verified by the state, you will have to show ID at the polls or submit a copy of ID with your registration or absentee ballot.[15] The following forms of ID are accepted: a current and valid photo identification; a current utility bill; a bank statement; a government check; a paycheck; or other government document that shows your name and registration address.[16] Student IDs will not count as photo identification unless they are from a public school. Cell phone bills will be accepted as utility bills. Note that the Board of Elections does not have a policy on accepting online printouts of qualifying documents.[17] If you cannot show ID, you will be allowed to vote a provisional ballot, which will be counted if you later provide the required ID to the county board of elections before the final canvass of the election, which is ten days after a general election.
Absentee
Any registered voter can vote absentee by mail.[18] You may also request a ballot and vote in person at a One-Stop voting site up until the Saturday before the election.[19]
To vote absentee by mail, you must hand-write your request for an absentee ballot, and your request must include your signature.[20] Your request does not need to be witnessed. Your county elections office must receive your request to vote absentee by 5 p.m. on the Tuesday before Election Day.[21]
After receiving your request and verifying that you are eligible to vote, the county board of elections will mail you an absentee ballot along with instructions on how to vote and return your ballot to the county board of elections.[22] When you fill out your absentee ballot, you must be witnessed by one person over the age of 18 who will then have to sign your ballot envelope.[23] Your county elections office must receive your absentee ballot by 5:00 p.m. on the day before Election Day.[24]
Early Voting
As a convenience to voters, North Carolina has early voting beginning on the 3rd Thursday before an election and ending on the Saturday before Election Day.[25] At early voting sites, you can vote any precinct’s ballot for that county. If you do not consider your school address to be your permanent address, or if you have not changed your residence yet, then early voting provides an opportunity to vote a ballot at the residence from which you are absent.
Last Updated in April 2010
[1] N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-82.6(c).
[2] N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-82.6(c1).
[3] N.C. Gen. Stat. § §163-227.2(b).
[4] N.C. Gen. Stat. § §163-227.2(b).
[5] N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-82.6A(b)(2).
[6] N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-82.1 (West 2010).
[7] FairVote “Voting Age and Registration,” available at http://www.fairvote.org/youth-preregistration-fact-sheet.
[8] N.C. Gen. Stat. §163-57(11) (West 2010).
[9] Id; see also Hall v. Wake County Bd. of Elections, 187 S.E. 2d 52 (1972).
[10] N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-57(6) (West 2010).
[11] N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-82.18, -82.7, -90.2.
[12] N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-87 to -88.1, -90.2.
[13] N.C. Gen. Stat. §163-166.12(b2).
[14] N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 163-82.6A(b)(2); 163-166.12(a)(2). .
[15] See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-166.12(a), (b).
[16] N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-166.12.
[17] Interview with Don Wright, North Carolina State Board of Elections (May 9, 2008).
[18] N.C. Gen. Stat. §163-226(a) (West 2010).
[19] N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-227.2.
[20] N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 163-230.1; 163-230.2.
[21] N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-230.1.
[22] N.C. Gen. Stat. §163-229.
[23] N.C. Gen. Stat. §163-231(a).
[24] N.C. Gen. Stat. §163-231(b).
[25] N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-227.2(b).
