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The State Board of Elections on Sunday voted to recognize the No Labels Party as an official political party in North Carolina.

Recognition of No Labels means voters now have another choice of party affiliation when registering to vote or updating their registration. Voters may register with the Democratic, Green, Libertarian, No Labels, or Republican parties, or they can register as unaffiliated.

The State Board found that No Labels received 14,837 valid signatures from registered N.C. voters, 932 over the required 13,865 signatures, on its petition to become a political party. The signatures were verified by the county boards of elections of the counties in which they were collected.

No Labels also received at least 200 signatures from three different congressional districts, a requirement of N.C.G.S. § 163-96(a)(2).

The State Board meeting was held Sunday in Concord, as part of the Summer 2023 Elections Conference. This conference – required under N.C.G.S. § 163-82.24 – brings together State Board staff, county election directors and staff, and hundreds of county boards of elections members for training on important election administration issues.

Voters currently registered with a different political party or as unaffiliated may switch their affiliation to No Labels if they wish. For information on how to do that, see Updating Registration on the State Board of Elections website.

The State Board is updating voter registration forms to include the No Labels option. Until then, voters may register with No Labels by checking the “Other” box and writing “No Labels” on the line in the “Political Party Affiliation” section of the voter registration application. Updates to party affiliation options available through the Division of Motor Vehicles’ online registration portal will be made as soon as possible.

State Board voter data will be updated to include No Labels registrants as soon as possible.\

Revision to Photo ID exception form for in-person voting

At Sunday’s meeting, the State Board also voted unanimously to revise the Photo ID Exception Form by removing the reason, “I did not know photo ID was required for voting,” from the form.

Voters can fill out the Photo ID Exception Form when they have a permitted exception to the photo ID requirements. Exceptions permitted by law include, among other things, that something prevents a voter from showing a photo ID when they vote, such as lack of transportation, disability or illness, work schedule, family responsibilities, lack of documents to obtain a photo ID, the photo ID was lost or stolen, or the photo ID has not yet been received. Voters unable to present a photo ID may also explain their reason in an “Other” option on the form.

Voters will be asked to show photo ID when voting in North Carolina, starting with the municipal elections this fall.

All voters will be able to vote with or without an ID. If a voter casting a ballot at the voting site does not provide an acceptable ID, the voter may fill out a Photo ID Exception Form and vote a provisional ballot, or vote a provisional ballot and bring an acceptable ID to the county board of elections office by the day before the county canvass (which is typically 10 days after elections in even-numbered years and seven days after elections in odd-numbered years).

Voters who vote by mail will be asked to include a photocopy of an acceptable ID with their ballot, or complete a Photo ID Exception Form for Absentee Voting. The photocopy will be mailed in a special envelope to protect the voter’s personal information on their ID.

For more information on the photo ID requirement and a list of acceptable photo IDs, see Voter ID at the State Board of Elections werbsite.

County Board member appointments

Also on Sunday, the State Board made the following appointments to county boards of elections:

Republicans: Julie Tiley Docteur to the Hertford County Board of Elections