Lanie Hamrick, left, and Destinee Terry, both students at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, check in to pick up their primary election ballots at the Old Fort Wesleyan Church polling place in McDowell County on March 3, 2020. Colby Rabon / Carolina Public Press
Lanie Hamrick, left, and Destinee Terry, both students at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, check in to pick up their primary election ballots at the Old Fort Wesleyan Church polling place in McDowell County on March 3, 2020. Colby Rabon / Carolina Public Press

North Carolina residents have until Friday to register if they want to vote by mail or on Election Day.  

In the last four years, nearly 1.8 million voters have registered or updated their registration, according to a report by Carolina Demography, a project based out of the University of North Carolina.

That’s roughly 25% of the state’s registered voters who are eligible to cast a ballot in this November’s election. 

Voting is already underway in North Carolina. Absentee-by-mail ballots began being delivered to voters on Sept. 4. In-person voting starts Oct. 15, and Election Day is now less than a month away, on Nov. 3. 

Those who changed residential addresses before Oct. 3 need to update their voter registration. Voters can check online to make sure their registration is up to date, or they can call their county’s board of elections

Whom people can vote for is determined by where the voter lives, so if a voter’s registration information is out of date, it may prevent some, if not all, of the votes from counting in the election. 

Eligible citizens can register to vote online, by mail or in person

Anybody who will be at least 18 years old by Nov. 3, is a U.S. citizen and who is not currently serving a felony sentence, including probation or post-release supervision, is eligible to vote in this fall’s election. 

For people who mail in a voter registration form, it must be postmarked by 5 p.m. by Oct. 9. The U.S. Postal Service postmarks most but not all mail. 

Eligible citizens who do not register to vote by Friday can still register and cast a ballot at the same time during early voting. Also called “One Stop,” early voting runs from Oct. 15-31. Voters can go to any early voting site in their county of residence.

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Jordan Wilkie is a former Report for America corps member and former reporter at Carolina Public Press. To reach the newsroom, email us at news@carolinapublicpress.org.

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  1. #RedWave2020
    Hopefully, one-stop registering and voting will soon be a thing of the past. #VoterID