Battleground ballots: North Carolina launches 2024 voting with election lawsuits in limbo

North Carolina residents will start receiving voting materials for the 2024 election this week, with absentee ballots beginning to hit mailboxes on Sept. 6 in the critical swing state.

But a few legal challenges regarding the Tar Heel State’s voter registration and ID laws could prove to have a significant impact on whether the state swings red or blue in November.

Former President Donald Trump carried North Carolina in both the 2016 and 2020 general elections. It was notably the only battleground where Trump defeated President Joe Biden, by just over 1 percentage point.

The thin margin by which the state was decided in 2020 makes the legal challenges in the state, including a nearly 6-year-old lawsuit filed by the NAACP protesting North Carolina’s voter ID law, even more consequential to the 2024 election.