DURHAM, N.C. (July 17, 2026) — North Carolina law includes a safety net for absentee voters called the “notice-and-cure” process. If there are certain problems with a voter’s absentee ballot package, they have to be notified by election officials and given a chance to correct them.
The State Board of Elections is currently proposing a change that will impose burdens on some absentee voters, making it harder for their ballots to be counted.
Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) filed public comments this week, raising concerns about that proposal and calling for stronger protections for absentee voters in the rule along with additional common-sense safeguards to ensure mailed-in ballots are counted without issue.
Read the full public comments document here.
SCSJ’s public comments draw on years of working to protect access to the ballot for all voters, regardless of the method of voting. Under existing notice-and-cure procedures, nearly 20,000 eligible voters were able to have their votes counted in the 2020 General Election. SCSJ is urging the State Board to maintain a notice-and-cure process that protects, rather than harms, voters.
“[The State Board should] refrain from making any changes to the proposed rules that deviate from current practice and either increase burdens on voters or decrease opportunities for ballots to be cured or counted. Such changes are unnecessary,” said Helena Abbott, Counsel for Voting Rights at SCSJ. “There’s no evidence that the current cure process has allowed ineligible ballots to be counted. In contrast, there’s ample evidence that the process has helped tens of thousands of eligible voters successfully cast a ballot.”
Want to submit a public comment on this issue? Find resources on how to do that here.
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Southern Coalition for Social Justice came together in 2007 to give Black, Brown, and low-income people better resources in the fight for justice across the South. We are lawyers, social scientists, and communications professionals working to dismantle racism and oppression in the criminal legal system, in our environment, and at the ballot box. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our work on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.