Wake County Judge Hoyt Tessener ruled in May that people who never lived in North Carolina cannot vote there.
Nebraska's district court just ruled the other direction – and opened a door affecting elections in 38 states.
What the RNC does next in Lincoln could determine who gets to vote in American elections for a generation.
Nebraska's Overseas Absentee Ballot Law Lets People Vote Who Never Set Foot in America
Nebraska law lets overseas U.S. citizens vote in state elections even if they have never lived there – and in some cases have never lived in the United States at all.
The 2005 law was written to extend protections to children of missionaries and military contractors serving abroad.
The Republican National Committee argues the law went far beyond that stated purpose.
Lancaster County District Court Judge Ryan Post disagreed on Aug. 12, upholding the law and ruling that statutes carry a presumption of constitutionality.
Only 116 people are currently registered to vote in Nebraska under this provision, and just six of them voted in the May primary.
The RNC is not fighting over 116 voters.
It is fighting over the principle that someone who has never touched American soil can decide American elections – and the legal precedent that lets 38 states run the same play.
"The RNC is taking this fight all the way to the Nebraska Supreme Court because Nebraska elections should be decided by Nebraska voters, period," RNC Election Integrity Communications Director Ally Triolo told the Daily Signal.
Two Nebraska voters, Jack Riggins and Pamela Dingman, joined the lawsuit alongside the RNC, arguing their votes are being diluted by ballots cast from overseas by people with no connection to Nebraska.
Article VI, Section 1, of the Nebraska Constitution specifies that voters must be U.S. citizens who have "resided within the state and the county and voting precinct" where they are casting a vote.
Judge Post ruled that a statute is presumed constitutional and resolved all doubts in the law's favor.
The RNC appealed.
How the Never Resident Voting Loophole Runs in 37 Other States and Why Democrats Want It
In most cases, the law allows Americans born abroad whose parents live in the state to vote by absentee ballot.
In some states, a person who has never set foot in the United States qualifies.
Democrats are not defending this on principle – they built an operation around it.
Democrats Abroad, the official overseas arm of the Democrat Party, operates in 190 countries and is running its 2026 voter registration drive worldwide, explicitly guiding people who have never lived in the United States to register using their parents' last American address.
Their numbers make the strategy clear: 77.65% of voters who registered through Democrats Abroad's votefromabroad.org tool between 2020 and 2024 leaned Left. Only 2.5% were Republican.
The RNC has filed never-resident lawsuits in seven states: Nebraska, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina.
North Carolina is the win.
A Wake County Superior Court struck down that state's law in May, ruling the North Carolina Constitution forbids voting by individuals who never lived there.
"This is a clear win for fair and lawful elections," RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said.
Michigan is the warning – the Court of Appeals tossed the RNC's challenge there on procedural grounds in 2025, never reaching the constitutional question, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's never-resident policy remains intact.
Nebraska is the chance to break that pattern and force the constitutional question toward the U.S. Supreme Court.
What a Nebraska Supreme Court Ruling Means for Election Integrity Nationwide
Elections do not need to be close by thousands of votes to matter.
Since 1992, 1,376 elections nationally have ended in an initial tie and 531 more were decided by a single ballot, according to the Public Interest Legal Foundation.
In 2024 in Nebraska, a seat on the Denton Village Board of Trustees was decided by lottery after ending in a tie.
That is the math – not mass fraud, but a few dozen strategically placed ballots in the right county at the right moment.
Democrats Abroad claims overseas votes provided the margin of victory in Georgia and Arizona in 2020.
The SAVE Act – Trump's declared top election security priority – remains stalled in Congress, making the courts the only active battlefield.
"We'll keep fighting to ensure elections are only decided by legal residents," Gruters said.
If the Nebraska Supreme Court sides with the RNC, the case moves toward a U.S. Supreme Court that has never ruled directly on whether states can extend voting rights to people who never lived there.
Thirty-eight states are watching.
Sources:
- Fred Lucas, "GOP Challenges Extreme Absentee Voter Law Spreading Around the Country," The Daily Signal, August 24, 2026.
- Fred Lucas, "RNC Sues Over 'Never Residents' Voting in Nebraska Elections," The Daily Signal, June 24, 2026.
- Fred Lucas, "RNC Opens New Front in Election Integrity Battle Over 'Never Residents' Voting in 6 States," The Daily Signal, July 19, 2026.
- Staff, "RNC Takes Virginia to Court, Blasts 'Nonresident Voting' Loophole in Election Fight," Fox News, April 9, 2026.
- Patty McMurray, "Big Win in North Carolina: Court Reaffirms 'Never Residents' Cannot Vote," The Gateway Pundit, May 30, 2026.
- Staff, "GOP Groups Claim Victory in Dispute Over NC 'Never Resident' Voters," Carolina Journal, May 27, 2026.
- Democrats Abroad, "Our Impact," democratsabroad.org, accessed August 24, 2026.
- Democrats Abroad, "International Voter Registration Drive 2026 Launches," democratsabroad.org, January 14, 2026.