Mid-term election season is here, and election officials want North Carolinians to be prepared for voter registration drives and mass mailings as Election Day 2026 approaches.

 Mid-term election season is here, and election officials want North Carolinians to be prepared for voter registration drives and mass mailings as Election Day 2026 approaches. The State Board of Elections welcomes efforts to engage voters and promote voter participation. The State Board recognizes, however, that many communications come unsolicited and can be confusing to recipients. Please see the following tips below regarding voter registration drives and mass mailings. Voter Registration Drives Many groups are now hosting voter registration drives to encourage participation in the upcoming election. The State Board offers the following tips about voter registration drives: The State Board encourages all voters to routinely check their registration status and details using the State Board’s online Voter Search tool. If you are already registered, you do not have to re-register, even if a registration drive worker tells you otherwise. County and state elections officials do not go door-to-door. If a person claims to be a state or county elections worker, ask them for identification, take down their name and contact the State Board office. If you fill out a registration form as part of a registration drive, you may personally return the form to your county board of elections, either in person or by mail. You do not have to give the form back to the voter drive worker. Always ask voter registration workers to verify their identities and their organizations before providing any information to them. If an individual refuses to comply, do not provide information and contact the State Board in one of the following ways: Call the State Board office at (919) 814-0700 and ask for the Investigations Division. Send an email with as much information as possible and your contact information to [email protected]. Fill out an Election Law Complaint Form and return it to the State Board of Elections. Mass Mailings Advocacy groups, political parties, and candidates send mailings to voters and prospective voters around elections. For example, this month, the Voter Participation Center (VPC) and the Center for Voter Information (CVI) are sending about 370,000 mailings to N.C. residents, which should start hitting mailboxes this week. These mailings include voter registration applications and encourage recipients to register. They are being sent to people who are turning 18 and newly eligible to vote, people who have moved between counties and need to update their registrations, and addresses where unregistered voters may live. Election officials encourage recipients with questions about the mailings to contact these groups directly. Any recipient of these mailings can request that they be removed from the mailing list. Their letter has a code near the bottom that they can email to VPC or CVI to be automatically removed ([email protected] and [email protected]). They can also call the following numbers to request to be removed from future mailings: (757) 793-2671 (VPC) and (757) 664-9066 (CVI). Election officials also wish to remind voters of the following: If you have questions or concerns about a mailing, please contact the organization responsible for it. Some mailings will include the organization’s contact information, as well as “unsubscribe” information, allowing voters to opt out of future mailings. If a mailing encourages you to register to vote and you are already registered, you do not have to do anything and can simply discard the mailing. For information about registering to vote in North Carolina, go to the Registering section at ncsbe.gov. The regular voter registration deadline is October 9, 2026, for the November 3, 2026, general election. If you miss this deadline, you may register and vote at the same time at any early voting site in your county during the early voting period.