Is the GOP violating NC election law?

[struggle4progress]

There was this interesting tidbit in a story on the Hillsborough GOP office arson-vandalism:

NC Republican Office firebombed, 'Nazi' GOPers threatened in graffiti
Posted: Oct 16, 2016 6:27 PM EDT
Updated: Oct 16, 2016 6:27 PM EDT
By NBC News
... North Carolina Republican Party spokeswoman Emily Weeks told NBC News that the office is totally unusable and that materials inside, possibly including completed absentee ballots, may have been destroyed ...

But NC law is pretty strict about the handling of absentee ballots -- and Emily Weeks' statement suggests to me a felony violation of election law:

NCGS § 163-226.3. Certain acts declared felonies. (a) Any person who shall, in connection with absentee voting in any election held in this State, do any of the acts or things declared in this section to be unlawful, shall be guilty of a Class I felony. It shall be unlawful ... (6) For any person to take into that person's possession for delivery to a voter or for return to a county board of elections the absentee ballot of any voter, provided, however, that this prohibition shall not apply to a voter's near relative or the voter's verifiable legal guardian ...

NCGS § 163-231. Voting absentee ballots and transmitting them to the county board of elections ... (b) Transmitting Executed Absentee Ballots to County Board of Elections. – The sealed container-return envelope in which executed absentee ballots have been placed shall be transmitted to the county board of elections who issued those ballots as follows: (1) All ballots issued under the provisions of this Article and Article 21A of this Chapter shall be transmitted by mail or by commercial courier service, at the voter's expense, or delivered in person, or by the voter's near relative or verifiable legal guardian and received by the county board not later than 5:00 p.m. on the day of the .. election ...

[SharonClark]

1. Good point. Why would there be completed absentee ballots at gop headquarters?

[sinkingfeeling]

2. No party should have ballots, other than samples, in their possession.

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. K & R

[Mc Mike]

4. Good catch. Class I felony. n/t

[Mc Mike]

6. Edited.

[WillowTree]

7. The operative word here, of course, is "possibly".

[LisaL]

8. Why would spokesperson think there could have possibly been completed ballots in there?

[WillowTree]

9. No idea. But it still wasn't a definite statement. It remains to be seen.

[struggle4progress]

10. This is the million dollar question.

It seems to be a felony -- and the spokesperson seems to think the evidence for this felony has been destroyed by the arson

[ehrnst]

11. WAPO is reporting Sample Ballots were lost in the fire

"Daniel Ashley, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, said in a video posted Sunday by the state GOP that someone threw a molotov cocktail through the window and the resulting fire melted a printer and other materials. Nearly all the office’s campaign signs for Trump and other local Republicans candidates were destroyed, as were sample ballots for early voting, which starts Thursday in the state."

Perhaps Emily Weeks, Deputy communications director of the NC GOP wasn't hired for her understanding of election law...