A deluge of absentee ballot requests for the 2020 campaign has prompted state elections officials to streamline their online process to make it easier for voters.
Almost 300,000 North Carolinians have requested absentee ballots for this year's election. That's well over 10 times the number of requests for the same period in the 2016 presidential election cycle.
That year requests were about evenly split between the two major parties. In 2020, Democrats have led the charge, making more than 150,000 applications, compared to fewer than 45,000 for Republicans. Unaffiliated voters were in the middle between the two.
To handle the increase, the North Carolina State Board of Elections has redesigned its ballot request page to make it simpler for voters to use.
For now, ballot requesters must print out the form and then fill it in by hand. It can then be mailed, emailed, faxed, or delivered in-person to the voter's county elections office.
The state board says come Sept. 1 the site will be updated again so that the process can be done entirely online.
Keep in mind that this is just to request a ballot to vote absentee. It's a different process to return your choices for the election.
The deadline to ask for an absentee ballot is Oct. 27, but election officials suggest those who want to vote that way make their request as soon as possible to avoid potential postal delays.