The first general election ballots of the presidential race are in the mail

The first ballots of the general election are heading to voters, as Alabama officials started mailing them out Wednesday.

Once eligible Alabama voters who requested absentee ballots receive them, they can return them at any point to lock in their votes for candidates for president, as well as in statewide and local races, weeks out from Election Day.

Alabama requires voters to have a reason to vote by mail, such as being absent from the county or working on Election Day. Voters who qualify can also go in person to their circuit clerks and fill out absentee ballot applications and ballots in person as early as Wednesday.

North Carolina was scheduled to mail out the first ballots of the general election last week, but that was delayed by a lawsuit from former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to remove himself from the ballot.

The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld an appeals court ruling to take Kennedy's name off the ballot Monday, meaning the state will need to reprint millions of ballots before they can be sent out.

After he dropped out of the race and endorsed former President Donald Trump last month, Kennedy began seeking to remove himself as an option for voters in other battleground states, such as North Carolina, as polling indicates his presence on the ballot could hurt Trump.

In Alabama, Kennedy will appear on the ballot for president alongside Trump, Kamala Harris and third-party candidates Jill Stein and Chase Oliver.

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Alabama, a Republican stronghold, is traditionally not a state that votes heavily by mail. In 2022, just over 45,000 voters cast absentee ballots, accounting for roughly 3% of all the state's ballots.

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Still, the state is the first to kick off voting season with Nov. 5 now just 55 days away. More than a dozen other states will soon follow suit.

Officials in Alaska, Idaho, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Minnesota, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Mississippi, Oregon and Vermont will begin sending mail ballots later this month.

And Virginia voters will be the first to cast in-person ballots in significant numbers, with early in-person voting kicking off Sept. 20.