North Carolina Appeals Court Rules Against Republican National Committee

Absentee ballots in Raleigh, N.C., on Sept. 17, 2024. Allison Joyce/Getty Images

Overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina will still be allowed to cast state ballots in the 2024 election, after the North Carolina Court of Appeals denied a petition from the Republican National Committee (RNC).

A unanimous panel of three appeals court judges denied the RNC’s request to block an order from a lower court. Wake County Superior Court Judge John W. Smith recently denied the RNC’s motion for a preliminary injunction, finding that Republicans had not provided substantial evidence showing that people who should not be voting have voted.

The appeals court also rejected a bid for a temporary injunction.

Republicans have been seeking a ruling declaring a North Carolina law that allows overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina to vote is in violation of the state’s constitution. Republicans have also sought a ruling ordering county boards of election to segregate ballots cast by such individuals and not count them.

North Carolina law says that a person whose parent or legal guardian once lived in North Carolina can vote in the state by mail, provided that they have never registered to vote in another state.

Voter registration forms issued by the North Carolina Board of Elections include an option that states, “I am a U.S. citizen living outside the country, and I have never lived in the United States.” That means the board is “permitting unqualified non-residents to vote in North Carolina elections,” the RNC said in its complaint.

The Democratic National Committee, which intervened in the case, and the state board of elections argued that the current position aligns with the North Carolina Constitution.

Smith issued his ruling on Oct. 21, finding in part that “this court has weighed the hypothetical possibility of harm to plaintiffs against the rights of the defendants and finds that on balance the equitable discretion of this court should not be invoked to treat an entire group of citizens differently based upon unsupported and speculative allegations for which there is not even [a] scintilla of substantive evidence.”

The North Carolina Court of Appeals did not issue an opinion detailing why it rejected the RNC’s appeal.

A Michigan judge earlier in the month turned away a bid to block spouses and children of overseas voters from voting.

And in Pennsylvania on Oct. 29, a federal judge dismissed an RNC lawsuit targeting some overseas voters, finding that plaintiffs waited too long to sue and did not provide sufficient evidence to support their claims.