North Carolina became the first state to mail 2026 general election ballots Friday as President Trump's mail-voting integrity order heads back to the Supreme Court amid a flurry of last-minute legal challenges.
North Carolina on Friday began mailing the first ballots of the 2026 general election, kicking off the midterm season even as the legal battle over President Donald Trump's executive order securing mail voting races toward the Supreme Court. Election workers across the state shipped absentee packets to voters who requested them, making the Tar Heel State the first in the nation to widely distribute ballots for the November contests that will decide control of Congress.
The milestone arrives with voting rules in flux. Trump's March executive order, which tightens how mail ballots are verified and tracked, has been tangled in lawsuits for months, and the administration this week asked the high court to resolve the fight once and for all.
State election officials made clear that the legal maneuvering would not delay voters. The North Carolina State Board of Elections, led by a Republican majority, spent Thursday briefing reporters in Raleigh on its readiness and confirmed the statewide mail-out would proceed as scheduled.
We believe that we are well positioned, Sam Hayes, executive director of the State Board of Elections, told reporters. It is business as usual, as far as I'm concerned.
Counties are doing the heavy lifting. Wake County elections employees have been processing absentee request forms daily, coding ballots, running pre-election accuracy testing and packaging packets that include a ballot, instructions and photo ID fliers, with roughly 5,000 ballots going out in the first wave. Mecklenburg County, home to Charlotte, is shipping its own tranche of absentee packets this week.
The executive order signed in March aims to put guardrails around mail voting at a time when roughly one in three Americans casts a ballot by mail. It requires states to share lists of eligible voters with the Postal Service through a verification portal and directs new postal rules that include barcodes on ballot envelopes so mail ballots can be tracked like any other piece of accountable mail.
Supporters see the requirements as commonsense integrity measures that ensure only legitimate voters receive ballots and that every returned ballot can be traced. Opponents, including Democratic state officials aligned in one of the lawsuits, argue the changes amount to a dramatic overhaul arriving too late in the election cycle. A representative of North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson's office argued in a recent filing that it was far too late in the election cycle to introduce such dramatic changes and warned of significant harm, confusion and disruption in election administration.
Election workers themselves are pushing back on the confusion narrative. Voters have been calling with questions about whether mail voting still exists, said Michael Dickerson, director of the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections. I just want people to be assured that, yes, you can still vote by mail, he said, adding that it is a safe and secure process.
The legal picture has shifted repeatedly in recent weeks. A federal judge lifted a major injunction against the order in late August, clearing the way for the new requirements, only for another court to step in days later. The Supreme Court handed down a procedural ruling in the administration's favor last week without reaching the merits, and on Thursday the administration appealed the latest setback to the high court.
The stakes are considerable. These midterms will determine the balance of power in Congress for the remainder of Trump's term, and North Carolina features a competitive U.S. Senate race expected to drive robust turnout. The state board has taken initial steps to comply with the order, including submitting its ballot envelopes to the Postal Service for review, where they were approved, while holding off on transmitting voter data until the litigation settles.
There is also bipartisan concern about Postal Service operations that predates the order. California saw nearly 150,000 mail ballots rejected in its June primary, most because they were postmarked too late, and Wisconsin officials have pressed the Postal Service after hundreds of ballots arrived past deadlines in April. Washington state issued a report this week on rejected mail ballots in its August election. The Trump administration's push to modernize mail ballot handling is, in part, a response to exactly these kinds of failures, ensuring ballots are traceable and counted rather than lost in the pipeline.
Military and overseas voters in North Carolina could begin returning ballots through the online portal as early as Saturday, meaning the first votes of the general election cycle could be cast within days.
The Supreme Court now looms as the decisive venue. If the justices take up the administration's appeal, a ruling could come quickly given the proximity of the election, potentially settling the rules for mail voting nationwide before other states begin sending ballots in the coming weeks. For now, election officials from both parties are telling voters the same thing: request early, return early, and track your ballot.
North Carolina became the first state to mail 2026 general election ballots Friday as President Trump's mail-voting integrity order heads back to the Supreme Court amid a flurry of last-minute legal challenges.
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