President Donald Trump approved the 2020 election in the Tar Heel State saying in 2021, “North Carolina produced a big victory for us, without a fraudulent outcome.” Nevertheless, there were problems with how the 2020 election was conducted in North Carolina. Those problems undermined the security of the election and cast doubt on whether all of the ballots counted accurately reflected the intent of legal voters in the state. 

This report aims to help readers understand how laws, regulations, and practices affected how the 2020 election worked in North Carolina. It then identifies flaws in the system that undermined election security. Finally, it addresses most of those problems with specific policy solutions and identifies others that require further investigation. 

Understanding how the system works will help avoid outrage at things that are not actual problems (such as claims of racial bias in mail ballot rejections) and instead direct reforms against real outrages (such as officials suppressing election observers).