RALEIGH, N.C. — If you plan on voting by mail in North Carolina, you have until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27 to request your absentee ballot. Before that, make sure you're registered to vote! That deadline is Friday, Oct. 9.
HOW TO REQUEST A BALLOT
The easiest way to request your absentee ballot is through the North Carolina Board of Elections' Absentee Ballot Request Portal online.
Have one of these two things handy:
- Driver's license number, or
- Last four digits of social security
The Absentee Ballot Request Portal will ask you to fill out some information to look up your voter registration. Once you've done all that, you'll see your voter information come up, including name, date of birth, city, state, and zip code, and your county. Then, just click CONTINUE to move forward with requesting your absentee ballot.
TRACKING YOUR BALLOT
There are three ways to track your absentee ballot: BallotTrax, the State Board's Voter Search Tool, or by contacting your county board of elections office.
1. BallotTrax - Absentee voters can create an account through BallotTrax to track the status of their ballot from when it is mailed to when it is received by the county board of elections. BallotTrax also updates voters if their ballot cannot be accepted because of issues such as a missing signature or witness information. If this happens, the county board of elections will update the voter on how to correct the issue.
2. Voter Search Tool - When a county board of elections marks a ballot as Accepted, that information will appear in that voter’s record available through the State Board’s Voter Search Tool. Because absentee ballot request information is confidential under state law until the ballot is accepted or until Election Day, absentee request information does not appear in the Voter Search Tool.
If you have questions about the status of your absentee ballot that can't be answered through the other two options, you can contact your county board of elections. Keep in mind county board offices are extremely busy. Click here to look up information for your county election board office.