As President Donald Trump rallied the Republican troops Tuesday in the Tar Heel State two weeks ahead of next month’s midterms, the GOP was coming fresh off a big election integrity victory.
The RNC and the North Carolina Republican Party stopped a last-minute attempt by left-wingers to water down safeguards for absentee ballots.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder denied a motion for preliminary injunction filed by the North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans, part of a national network of big labor-sponsored activists that advocate for leftist causes, and other leftist groups. Schroeder ruled that the groups sought to block the election integrity directives too late in the game.
As the judge noted, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly admonished lower courts they “should ordinarily not alter the election rules on the eve of an election.” That particularly holds for injunctions seeking to change the rules of engagement in the eleventh hour. In this case, the “election is not merely upcoming; it has already started,’” the judge wrote in quoting a past SCOTUS decision.
“Plaintiffs have also delayed. They waited eighteen days afterthe 2026 Numbered Memo was issued to bring this action, and they did not file their motion for preliminary injunction until the day before the counting of absentee ballots would begin,” Schroeder wrote.
‘Should be Denied’
According to court documents, nearly 124,000 absentee ballots had been requested as of Oct. 8., with more than 25,000 cast statewide. At an expedited hearing on Oct. 14, attorneys for the North Carolina State Board of Elections informed the court that 31,582 absentee ballots had been cast as of that date.
What’s perhaps most interesting about the case is that the left-wing activists insisted the so-called Purcell principle did not apply, that it wasn’t too late to stop the guidance to local election officials. Of course, leftist “voter rights” organizations like the League of Women voters vehemently argued that President Donald Trump’s legal challenges to myriad irregularities in the rigged 2020 election ran afoul of Purcell. And the Supreme Court agreed.
Last month, the North Carolina Alliance of Retired Americans and its comrades asked U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina to grant a preliminary injunction on guidance regarding absentee ballots. The groups and two North Carolina voters want local election workers to count ballots returned without required sealed postage. Once again, election-integrity opponents are seeking to use the third branch to circumvent the first branch.
North Carolina law is clear: The application for an absentee ballot “shall“ be completed and signed by the voter personally, “the absentee ballots marked, the absentee ballots sealed in the container-return envelope, and the certificate [on the sealed container-return envelope] completed.” Unsealed ballots are required to be tossed. Doing so “would violate the Materiality Provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” the plaintiffs argued.
They have made the argument before. In 2024, the Republican National Committee fought left-wing activist-pushed guidance allowing county election officials to count ballots not returned in the sealed envelope required by state law. The RNC won. The liberal interpretation of the law was “incorrect” and presented a clear chain of custody problem.
The North Carolina Alliance of Retired Americans, whose parent is led by the likes of American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, was back again as ballots were going out to try to undo the election integrity win. Schroeder ultimately ruled the plaintiffs were late to the party.
“For the reasons set forth above, the court finds that Plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction should be denied,” Schroeder wrote in Monday’s order.
‘Last-Minute Bid Failed’
North Carolina election officials began mailing out absentee ballots in early September — 60 days before Election Day, as required by law. The Tar Heel State was first out of the gate in pushing out early ballots.
As of Sunday, nearly 526,000 ballots had been cast across the state, an increase of 37 percent from the same point in the 2022 midterms, WTVD in Raleigh reported.
“Democrats and their allies tried to gut basic ballot safeguards in the middle of an election, and the RNC stopped them,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters.
“Requiring voters to sign their absentee ballots and return them in sealed envelopes is commonsense. Only Democrats would go to court to fight protections this basic. Their last-minute bid failed, and the RNC made sure the rules stayed in place ahead of the midterms.”
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.