All voters have the right to vote free of intimidation, including from law enforcement, military, and federal agents.
It is illegal for anyone to try to or actually intimidate, threaten, or coerce someone who is voting or trying to vote, or someone who is helping a person to vote. By law, members of the military, state and local law enforcement, and federal agents, including ICE, may not intimidate or prevent a qualified voter from voting through force, threat, or other action. It doesn’t matter if the intimidation was deliberate, as long as the voter, or the voter’s helper, felt intimidated.
Beyond the federal laws against intimidation, it is also illegal for any person in the U.S. civil, military, or naval service to order troops or armed federal agents to any place where an election is held. By law, officers of the U.S. military may not interfere with the freedom of any election or the exercise of the right to vote in any state.
All voters have the right not to be discriminated against based on race, national origin, or disability.
All voters who need assistance because of a disability or inability to read and write in the language of the ballot may choose someone to help them to vote, as long as the person is not an agent/representative of the voter’s employer or union.
If you have questions or need assistance on-site, the best person to speak to is a local election worker. Poll workers are members of your community, and work for the municipal or county government rather than the federal government.
If you observe violations of these rules, call 866-OUR-VOTE, the Election Protection Hotline! You can even report anonymously. If you are voting in person, and you feel comfortable doing so, you can quietly report your concerns to an on-site poll worker. Do not approach, speak to, or engage a law enforcement officer.
You can be challenged as to the following things:
If the challenge is sustained—meaning the judges of election agree with the challenge—you have the right to apply for and vote a challenged ballot.
You can only be challenged by someone who is also a registered voter in your county or by the chief judge, judge, or assistant appointed under North Carolina law.
When you enter a polling place to vote, a precinct official will ask you to state your current name and address. Poll workers will also ask you to provide an approved photo ID when voting in North Carolina. If you do not show an acceptable ID but meet one of the qualified exceptions to the photo ID requirement, you may complete an affidavit affirming your identity and your eligibility for that exception. You may also be asked to complete a reasonable impediment form. After completion of those forms, you may vote a provisional ballot.
If you do not qualify for an exception, you may vote a provisional ballot and return to the county board of elections office with a photo ID. If you do not return to the county board of elections office with a photo ID, your vote will not be counted.
Talk to another election official, such as a precinct judge or a one-stop site manager. If that does not resolve the issue, call Election Protection.
No, unless the voter and the chief judge of the precinct give permission. This also applies to curbside voting. Photography may be considered an example of voter intimidation.
Election officials get to determine who is allowed in the polling place, but they are limited by state law. North Carolina law allows the following people to be inside the polling place: election officials and people they assign as necessary to solve an urgent situation, observers appointed by statute, voters, a voter’s assistant, children in a voter’s care, and voters lodging a lawful challenge.
Poll watchers who are not observers appointed by statute are not allowed within the polling place or the surrounding buffer zone.
Talk to another election official, such as a precinct judge or a one-stop site manager. If that does not resolve the issue, call Election Protection.
Voters are entitled to assistance. Any voter can have a near relative or legal guardian assist them at the polls or deliver an absentee ballot for them. If a voter has a disability or other limitation that requires assistance to vote, the voter may bring any person of their choice to help them vote other than their union representative or employer.
Fair Elections Center and its Campus Vote Project intend the information contained herein to be used only as a general guide. This document should not be used as a substitute for consultation with a licensed North Carolina legal professional. Updated August 2026.