The State Board of Elections wants everyone to know one thing as the May 17 primary creeps closer: they aren’t to blame for the predicted onslaught of mass mailings that voters are almost certain to be getting in their mailboxes soon – both physical boxes and email inboxes.
The deadline to register to vote in the May primary is April 22. If you miss the deadline, you may register and vote at the same time at any early voting site in your county. Early voting in Vance and Granville counties begins April 28 and ends May 14.
“A number of voter advocacy and political organizations have begun to send mass mailings to voters and prospective voters across North Carolina as the 2022 statewide primary election approaches,” reads a press statement from Patrick Gannon, the board’s public information director.
While it welcomes efforts to engage voters and promote voter participation, the statement reads, the board “recognizes…that many mailings come unsolicited and can be confusing to some recipients.”
First of all, the mailings didn’t emanate from the state board of elections. Secondly, if you have questions or concerns about a mailing you receive, you should contact the organization who sent it. Some mailings will include the organization’s contact information; with emails, there may be a way to unsubscribe to allow voters to opt of future mailings.
The state board said voters may routinely check their registration status using the online tool Voter Search.
For information about registering to vote in North Carolina, go to the Registering section at ncsbe.gov
As an example of such mailings, in the coming days, private organizations called the Voter Participation Center (VPC) and the Center for Voter Information (CVI) are sending about 490,000 voter registration mailings to certain North Carolina residents.
The registration mailings will contain voter registration applications and information for unregistered voters. According to the groups, the mailings will go to unregistered young people who will be eligible to vote in the upcoming elections for the first time, to voters who have recently moved and have not re-registered or updated their voter registration records, and to others who are unregistered in the voting-age population.
Election officials encourage recipients with questions about the mailings to contact these groups directly. Voters may contact the groups by phone at (202) 659-9570 (VPC) and (866) 290-1599 (CVI).
If you want to be removed from the mailing lists, the letter will have a code near the bottom that you can email to VPC or CVI to be automatically removed (unsubscribe@voterparticipation.org and unsubscribe@centerforvoterinformation.org).