Proposed North Carolina election rules could be delayed — perhaps until after the 2026 elections — as a bureaucratic battle plays out between Democratic and Republican state officials. 

The North Carolina Rules Review Commission on Thursday gave its approval to proposed rules that could determine whether some ballots are ultimately counted. The rules could make it easier to throw out some ballots — including by creating new procedures for mail-in ballots and for voters who lack photo identification — and give poll workers new powers to eject people from polling places.

Other WRAL Top Stories

The rules previously passed the State Board of Elections in a series of 3-2 votes, with the Republican majority in favor and Democrats opposed. But that wasn’t the final step, nor was Thursday’s action. 

The legislature is now expected to conduct a final review of the proposed rules, raising questions about whether they could be implemented before the election. Absentee ballots are scheduled to start being mailed next week. 

Republican state election officials say the rules will help improve election integrity. “What instills faith in elections is adherence to the letter and spirit of the law,” state elections director Sam Hayes said when the rules won initial approval in July.

Hayes added in an interview Thursday: "I am committed to access for for every eligible voter in this state. And we're going to be very, very protective of that right because it is the most fundamental constitutional right we have in this country."

Democrats, including Gov. Josh Stein, say the changes are at best unnecessary but could also lead to legitimate voters not being allowed to vote — perhaps due to simple mistakes, or perhaps due to politically motivated targeting that they fear the rules would allow.

The rules commission is an administrative board that reviews proposals from many state agencies. That group is made up entirely of Republican political appointees, and the GOP members of the elections board entered the meeting Thursday expecting the commission to sign off on what they wanted.

And while the commission did just that Thursday, it still wasn’t the final say. The commission can’t unilaterally approve rules if at least 10 people file written objections. If that happens, the state legislature must make the final decision on whether to approve or deny the rules. Enough opponents of the new rules, including Stein, sent in letters to trigger that requirement for legislative review, according to the elections board.

As a result, there’s a chance the rules won’t be able to go into effect until after the midterm elections are over. Republicans control both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly, and are likely to approve the rules suggested by their fellow Republicans on the elections board. But lawmakers adjourned weeks ago with no plans to return until after Election Day on Nov. 3. 

Spokespeople for GOP legislative leaders didn’t immediately respond to WRAL’s request for comment on whether they’d adjust their schedules to conduct a review in time for the election.

Many opponents of the rules also came to Thursday's commission meeting in person, creating an abnormally large crowd at the state’s typically humdrum Office of Administrative Hearings. The turnout prompted the commission’s chairman, Jake Parker, to jokingly ask people if they knew they were at an administrative law hearing. The commission’s work is highly technical and rarely receives much public attention. Some of the non-lawyer members of the public who came to speak acknowledged the dynamic.

“I wasn't quite sure how I was going to approach this opportunity,” Kathy Martin, a member of the public who opposes the rules, told the commission Thursday. She added that she’s an unaffiliated voter, as are millions of other North Carolinians. Her point was that many people don’t want a single political party having total control over elections. These proposed rules go too far in making that happen, she said.

“The people, when given access to free and fair elections, keep us centered,” Martin said. “Nothing is allowed to get too far out of whack before the people say, ‘Hey, stop.’ And that's what we're protecting here.”

Stein’s letter to the commission, sent Wednesday, says that the proposed election rules would be too harmful to voters, and would jettison too many safeguards against political meddling in the vote count.

“The people of North Carolina deserve nonpartisan, professionally administered elections to ensure their credibility,” Stein said. 

Adam Steele, a lawyer for the elections board, said Thursday that he and other elections officials made some changes to their original proposals based on public feedback.

“We took a lot of them into account,” Steele said. “Made a lot of changes in response to those comments. We feel very good about these rules.”

One of the biggest changes is a proposal for handling voters who show up without acceptable photo ID. While state law requires voter ID in most cases, it also allows people to ask for an exemption in specific scenarios — such as religious objections to being photographed, having their ID stolen, losing documents in a natural disaster and more.

Currently when a voter requests an exemption, the county-level elections board must grant it unless there is unanimous, bipartisan agreement that they’re lying or don’t otherwise qualify. The new proposal would get rid of that rule and allow exemptions to be denied with a simple majority vote.

Republicans hold a 3-2 majority on all 100 county boards. So Democrats fear Republicans would use the new rule to throw out ballots cast by Democrats, but not by Republicans. There typically aren’t many voters who seek ID exemptions, but in a state where races are often divided by close margins, even a few votes can matter.

“The right to vote is the most fundamental right in our democracy, and North Carolina voters should have faith that their ballots are not being discarded for partisan aims,” Stein said in his letter to the rules commission.

Hayes defended the change. "I often say that that election integrity and access are two sides of the same coin, and there's no better example than voter ID," he said in an interview Thursday.

Republicans on the state elections board who proposed the rule say that, as well as the other proposed changes, are needed to protect election integrity. Elections Board spokesman Jason Tyson told WRAL the proposals are “common-sense measures to protect voters and elections.”