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The battle over an omnibus North Carolina elections law passed in 2023 returns to federal court next week. Civil rights groups say the legislation impedes the rights of young people to register to vote and have their ballots counted when using same-day registration during the early voting period.
Republicans who authored the bill claim it’s necessary to protect election security.
However, attorney Adrianne Spoto with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice said that young voters largely rely on same-day voter registration compared to other age groups, and SB 747 targets this preferred method of voting.
“Essentially, the bill made it so voters who use same-day registration can have their ballots discarded if a single verification mailer sent to them bounces back as undeliverable,” explained Spoto.
A simple postal error out of the voter’s control could easily cause a ballot not to be counted.
Jovita Lee, director of the North Carolina Black Alliance“This is especially challenging for young voters in college dorms. These dorms often have complex, convoluted systems and addressing standards,” Spoto said during a Tuesday press briefing.
Although a federal judge ruled county boards of elections must reach out to voters before discarding ballots, the notice and cure process has not always proven to be effective, according to the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
Dr. Jovita Lee, director of the North Carolina Black Alliance (NCBA), said SB 747 disproportionately impacts students attending North Carolina’s 11 historically black colleges and universities.
“Before Senate Bill 747, the Board of Elections would verify the addresses of same-day voters using various means. Now [voters] only get one letter and they may not know that their vote has been cancelled,” said Lee.
Expert analysis offered in a pre-trial brief indicates that young voters under the age of 26 overwhelmingly rely on same-day registration, making up between 30 and 40% of same-day registrants in a given election.
Jennifer Rubin, League of Women Voters of North CarolinaPlaintiffs’ expert Dr. Kevin Quinn is also expected to testify that historical elections data from 2010 to 2025 shows young voters were disproportionately more likely to rely on a second verification mailer to save their registration than any other age group, with approximately 20,000 individuals verified by using a second mailer.
The League of Women Voters of North Carolina is also a plaintiff in the federal case.
“When young people learn to vote early in their careers, they stay voters,” explained Jennifer Rubin, president of the League.
The League is concerned that a voter can do everything correctly, only to have their voice and vote canceled out.
Rubin said same-day registration has been one of the best ways to ensure that every eligible voter is able to cast a ballot – benefiting not only young adults and college students who tend to move more often, but also those who have changed their name, or missed the registration deadline.
“Disenfranchising voters over a piece of returned mail undermines trust, fairness and the integrity of our elections,” said Rubin.
Provision blocked in 2024 elections could be in play in ‘26
U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder initially issued an injunction that prevented election officials from using the “undeliverable mail provision” in the 2024 election cycle.
Attorneys for Republican legislative leaders argued the voting rights groups failed to prove the same-day registration policies in 747 caused any specific harm, and that their complaints were “speculative, generalized grievances.”
But Schroeder wrote in that temporary order that “By failing to provide voters with notice and opportunity to be heard, section 163-82.6B(d) creates an unacceptable risk that eligible voters’ ballots will be erroneously removed and not counted.”
In July, Schroeder rejected a motion by lawmakers for summary judgement.
Now the case returns to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina Monday, with an outcome that could have implications for the 2026 midterms.
As the case is being heard in Winston-Salem, Republican legislators will be back at the General Assembly redrawing congressional district maps to give Republicans a further advantage in the U.S. House.
Spoto, the attorney for the Southern Coalition, said the mid-decade redistricting announced just this week speaks to a broader, disappointing trend to cut back on voting rights.
“Whether it’s a matter of shaping the districts in a way that’s designed to harm voters from having their views expressed, things like SB 747, putting up barriers to people having their votes counted fairly–these all speak to problems our legislature is putting into place. It’s the exact opposite of how a democratic system should be operating.”
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