Thanks to the pandemic and the coming surge of absentee voting, several swing states have already been compelled to grant extra time for ballots to arrive by mail. North Carolina joined this roster Tuesday.
To settle one from the blizzard of lawsuits pushed by Democrats, the state not only extended that deadline on Tuesday but also agreed to allow voters a chance to correct procedural mistakes with their absentee ballots.
The double-barrel agreement came as a fresh federal lawsuit was seeking to make Arkansas give its voters a similar "ballot curing" option, while Republicans appealed a federal judge's extension for mailed ballots in Georgia.
As the record wave of litigation continues to roil preparations six weeks from Election Day, these are the details of the latest developments:
North Carolina
The state, with 15 electoral votes both President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have in their sights, became the fourth battleground forced just this week to allow more time for ballot envelopes delayed in the mail. But unlike the other three, where GOP appeals could yet reverse those decisions, North Carolina's seems destined to stand because it is the result of a lawsuit settlement.
The state agreed to count absentee ballots that arrive up to nine days after the election, or Nov. 12, so long as they are postmarked by the time the polls close Election Day. Before this change, mail ballots were invalidated if they arrived more than three days late, still a more permissive deadline than about two-thirds of the states.
The state will also give voters a chance to fix issues with their absentee ballot, something that wasn't guaranteed in previous elections. A previous lawsuit already allowed voters to request and complete a new ballot if an error occurred. But this settlement makes the process easier by asking voters to fill out a form with the information missing from their ballot.
The state Board of Elections, three Democrats and two Republicans, unanimously agreed on these changes Tuesday. The settlement must now be blessed by a judge, which seems likely to be a formality.
Arkansas
The League of Women Voters filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday requesting state officials establish a process for voters to fix issues with their absentee ballot. Current law requires election administrators to toss out ballots with missing signatures or incorrect information, such as a wrong address.
Voting rights advocates worry this could disenfranchise thousands of voters in the reliably red state. The lawsuit asks officials to start absentee ballot reviews 15 days before the election to give administrators and voters enough time to address potential issues.
Georgia
The Republican National Committee and the Georgia GOP on Monday asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse an extension for mailed ballots this fall. Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had already started the appeals process.
A federal judge ruled in August that election officials must count absentee ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 that arrive within the next three days. Before the ruling, state law mandated arrival by the time polls close on Election Day, the rule in 33 states altogether. The extension could add tens of thousands of valid votes in a state with 16 too-close-to-call electoral votes and a pair of close Senate races
Georgia is the 20th state where the national GOP is involved in election lawsuits. Republicans say voters in Georgia have plenty of time to send in their mail ballots so the extension is not necessary.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.