2,044 events on record Subscribe September 10, 2026
Standing Record home The Standing Record A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —
and the events that erode them.

North Carolina elections board voted along party lines to reject most Sunday early-voting hours across 20 counties

The North Carolina State Board of Elections, whose Republican majority was installed under a 2024 law shifting appointment power from the governor to the state auditor, voted largely along party lines on August 20, 2026, to reject most proposed Sunday early-voting hours among roughly 20 counties whose local boards had deadlocked. Board member Matthew Longworth, a Republican member of the Anson County elections board presenting his county's plan, said "we are requiring people to work on the Lord's day" by having Sunday voting. The board granted a handful of exceptions, including a unanimous vote for Sunday hours in Lee County.

Jurisdiction
North Carolina
Location
Raleigh, North Carolina

Abuses documented

Actors

On August 20, 2026, North Carolina's State Board of Elections voted largely along party lines to reject most of the Sunday early-voting hours proposed among roughly 20 counties whose local election boards could not unanimously agree on weekend schedules. State law requires early voting on weekdays and the final Saturday of the period (Oct. 15-31); Sunday hours are optional, and it was Sunday access that divided most of the deadlocked county boards, with Democrats favoring the hours and Republicans opposing them.

Board member Matthew Longworth, a Republican member of the Anson County elections board who presented his county's plan to the state board, said "By having Sunday voting, we are requiring people to work on the Lord's day." Republican state board member Stacy "Four" Eggers IV said he has "generally and consistently not supported voting on Sunday," citing it as a day of rest. Democrats on the state and county boards said Sunday hours help voters with weekday work schedules or long commutes, and that some Black churches hold "souls to the polls" turnout events on Sundays after services; state board member Siobhan Millen, a Democrat, said Sunday voting "is used more heavily by Black folks" in some counties.

The vote followed a state Supreme Court order allowing a 2024 law to remain in effect while litigation continues -- a law that stripped the power to appoint the State Board of Elections from the governor and gave it to the state auditor, flipping the board from a Democratic to a Republican majority. Most of the 20 contested plans were adopted along party lines; a handful of votes were unanimous, including a minority plan preserving three hours of Sunday voting in Lee County and a plan adding an early-voting site at Western Carolina University in Jackson County after a local board member said he had been threatened with removal from his seat for supporting the campus site.

Why we recorded this

Free and fair elections depend on early-voting access being set on neutral administrative grounds, not to favor one party's turnout. North Carolina's State Board of Elections, deciding roughly 20 counties' early-voting plans after local boards deadlocked, voted along party lines to reject most of the proposed Sunday early-voting hours -- a schedule Democrats said helps voters who work weekdays and is used heavily by Black churches' "souls to the polls" turnout efforts. This archive records the vote because narrowing weekend voting access, decided by a partisan board majority rather than a neutral administrative standard, falls unevenly on the voters who rely on it.

Sources

  1. NC Board of Elections votes along party lines to reject most Sunday early voting hours — NC Newsline investigative accessed August 21, 2026
  2. NC elections board rejects Sunday voting in some counties — WHQR investigative accessed August 21, 2026

See also