Sarah Michels

Candidates trying to unseat sheriffs criticize tendency to re-elect incumbents and appoint handpicked successors in many NC counties.

Absentee voting begins this week, and early voting isn't far off. But North Carolina voters won't have to worry about recently proposed changes to

North Carolina’s 100 sheriffs have wide-ranging jobs.

Absentee voting begins this week, and early voting isn’t far off. But North Carolina voters won’t have to worry about recently proposed changes to absentee voting, photo ID exception forms or voting site conduct rules until next year because of a quirk in the law.

North Carolina's 100 sheriffs have wide-ranging jobs. As part of their vow to maintain law and order, they oversee county detention

Answers to frequently asked questions about mail-in voting in North Carolina, which gets underway Sept. 4, the earliest in the nation.

Thanks to a sufficient number of objections, several proposed NC elections rules need further review and likely won't affect 2026 voting.

Friday, county election boards began sending out absentee ballots to voters across the state. North Carolina will be the first state in the nation to begin mail-in voting in the 2026 general election.

Durham County Board of Elections staff process absentee ballots in October 2020 at the agency's warehouse. Each blue bin holds ballots from a different precinct. The workers are removing ballots from absentee-by-mail envelopes and flattening them, to be scanned in batches later on.

From proposed constitutional amendments about taxes and voter ID to a range of local referendums, 2026 NC voters will face ballot questions.