North Carolina’s Court of Appeals has ruled that overseas voters who have never resided in the state will remain eligible to vote in the 2024 election. The decision comes after the court 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 people who should not be voting have voted.
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 they have never registered to vote in another state.
Voter registration forms issued by the North Carolina Board of Elections includes 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 a complaint.
The Democratic National Committee, which intervened in the case, and the board argued the current position aligns with the North Carolina Constitution.
Smith ruled on Oct. 21, saying 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 scintilla of substantive evidence.”
The North Carolina Court of Appeals did not issue an opinion detailing why it rejected the RNC’s appeal.
