“I thought your number had been taken over by a bot.”
That was Duke University senior Grace Peng’s immediate reaction to a text from The 9th Street Journal asking whether she knew that her voter registration needed fixing. Peng’s name appears on the North Carolina Board of Elections’ registration repair list, a compilation of N.C. voters whose registration information is incomplete or in need of correction.
Why did Peng think the message from 9th Street was from a bot?
“There are just too many political texts going out.”
Even though she feels inundated with communications about the election, Peng had never heard of the registration repair list. As of October 2025, roughly 100,000 NC voters were on the list, including 4,144 from Durham. Now, those numbers have dropped, but not by much — to 69,894 and 3,449 respectively.
“We’ve gotten a few hundred people off the list in Durham since it first came out,” said Emerson KIrby, chair of the Durham Democrats. “There were various things being done to publicize it when it first came out but it’s very important that we continue to remind people that it’s still a thing.”
She acknowledged that there is still a lot to do. “The Durham Democrats are keeping the more than 3,000 people who are still on the list in mind as we head into 2026.”
Voters on the list who wait until the March 3 primary to vote risk having their ballots rejected. (They may receive provisional ballots, however those often ultimately go uncounted.) Voters have until Feb. 28, the last day of early voting, to repair their registration ahead of the primary. Voters must present a photo ID and proof of residence (driver’s license, college housing assignment, campus letter, or government correspondence) at an early voting site.
Duke University senior Annabelle Lee had intended to vote on March 3. She is from Kingsport, Tennessee and switched her voter registration to North Carolina before the 2024 primaries. She also made sure to update it after legally changing her name so that she could vote in the 2024 general election.
She had no idea what the registration list was or that she was on it before being contacted by The 9th Street Journal.
“I would have fixed my registration earlier, but I didn’t even know it was in need of repair,” Lee said.
Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Peng also switched her voter registration to North Carolina right before the 2024 presidential election.“I really, really wanted to be a good citizen and make sure to go vote.”
“It’s super-annoying” to find out that her registration is out of order, she said.
Durhamites on the registration repair list can amend their registration at any of the following early voting precincts:
- North Regional Library, 221 Milton Road
- East Regional Library, 211 Lick Creek Lane
- South Regional Library, 4505 S. Alston Avenue
- Durham County Main Library, 300 N. Roxboro Street
- Durham County Board of Elections, 3825 S. Roxboro Street, Suite 101
- Turner Law Building, N.C. Central University, 640 Nelson Street
- Karsh Alumni Center, Duke University, 2080 Duke University Road
- Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 4907 Garrett Road
Voters who have moved recently, had a name change or changed parties may find themselves on the registration repair list. However, longtime voters have also found themselves on the list because of bureaucratic or administrative errors.
Turnout at primary elections is typically lower. Though 71.63% of Durham voters turned out for the 2024 general election, only 27% voted in the primary election that year.
Yet the 2026 primary will decide some key contests, including who appears on the ballot in November to represent N.C. in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Fourth District, as well as other statewide and local offices. (The Durham County Board of Elections site details who’s on the Durham ballot this election.)
March 3 is also the final election for four Durham school board seats.
Above: Voters cast their ballots at Durham County Public Library during the 2024 election. Photo by Kulsoom Rizavi — The 9th Street Journal
Annapurna Bhattacharya
