Voting rights advocates have won a singular victory in their multifaceted lawsuit to force more permissive voting regulations in battleground North Carolina this fall.
People whose absentee ballots get rejected must be notified and given a chance to challenge the disqualification and correct any mistakes, federal Judge William Osteen ruled Tuesday. But he also concluded that fears the coronavirus will sicken voters at the polls, or depress turnout, are not enough to make him order more widespread easements in the state's election laws.
His decision, which would be tough to successfully appeal in the three months before Election Day, gives some clarity on the election rules in one of the most politically pivotal states — where the battles for its 15 electoral votes as well as a Senate seat both look like tossups.
But Democrats and others pushing for maximum turnout in the state, especially in Black communities, say they will benefit from the judge's order to permit so-called ballot curing and two other absentee voting easements approved by the General Assembly last month: reducing, from two to one, the number of witness signatures on the ballot envelope, and allowing voters to apply for mail ballots online.
Nineteen states require voters be notified of a missing signature or a signature discrepancy and allowed a do-over. About half the states allow online or email applications for absentee ballots. Fewer than a dozen states require a witness signature on such a ballot.
In his ruling, Osteen wrote that while the evidence presented during a two-day hearing last month was not strong enough to warrant his more assertive intervention, officials in Raleigh "would be sorely mistaken" in concluding the concerns raised in the lawsuit could now be discounted.
The suit was filed against the State Board of Elections, GOP Secretary of State Stella Anderson and other officials by Democracy North Carolina and the League of Women Voters. They also wanted to make the state allow new voters to register closer than 25 days before the election, one of the earliest deadlines in the country; set up drop boxes for absentee ballots; ease restrictions on assisting people in marking and returning such ballots; and drop the remaining witness requirement.
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice, which helped press the lawsuit, said the ruling to allow the corrections on absentee ballots could preserve the franchise for an estimated 115,000 North Carolinians — a number based on past rejection rates and the expectation that two of every five votes in the state will be cast by mail this fall, 20 times the number two years ago.
Polling shows former Vice President Joe Biden statistically tied with President Trump in the state. The last Democrat to carry it was Barack Obama a dozen years ago — and by just 18,000 votes. And Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who's being challenged by former Democratic state Sen. Cal Cunningham, won his seat six years ago by just 45,000 votes.
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.