STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's go down to North Carolina, where a new election rule is tripping up thousands of voters. Nick De la Canal reports from WFAE in Charlotte.
NICK DE LA CANAL, BYLINE: Just last month, North Carolina's Republican-led elections board added a new mail-in process. Here's how it works - voters must place their ballot inside one envelope that goes inside a second envelope with a copy of their ID. Previously, voters only needed to seal the outer envelope. Now they must seal both, or the ballot doesn't count.
MICHAEL DICKERSON: I'd hate to see something thrown out because of something like that.
DE LA CANAL: Michael Dickerson is the elections director in Mecklenburg County, home to Charlotte. Behind him, workers are sorting dozens of newly arrived ballots. So far, unsealed inner envelopes have disqualified about 300 Mecklenburg County ballots. When that happens, staff send out replacements, but only about a hundred voters have successfully voted again. Statewide mail ballot rejections are up a little bit this year to more than 3%, meaning thousands of votes could be lost. But licking both envelopes shut is important, says Jason Tyson, spokesman for the state's board of elections.
JASON TYSON: There were ballots in the past that were counted because this number memo was not in place. And the board felt like, well, hey, this ballot could have been tampered with.
DE LA CANAL: Tyson couldn't cite a specific example of inner envelope tampering. But in a follow-up email, he said someone could theoretically open and reseal the outer envelope after altering the unsealed ballot inside. That rationale seems disingenuous to Brooks Fuller with the voting rights group Common Cause North Carolina.
BROOKS FULLER: No one can point to real, credible evidence that failure to seal that inner envelope is anything other than a harmless oversight on behalf of the voter.
DE LA CANAL: Voting rights groups have sued, but a federal judge declined to block the requirement last week. North Carolina does have some close races this year, where hundreds of votes could make a difference. And as Election Day nears, voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected are running out of time to cast new ones.
For NPR News, I'm Nick de la Canal in Charlotte.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED (I'M YOURS)")
STEVIE WONDER: (Singing) Here I am. Signed, sealed, delivered. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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