A North Carolina House committee advanced an elections bill that would change a range of election laws, with some Democrats objecting to provisions expanding the window for challenging voters, granting the state Auditor new powers, and allowing the state elections board to shroud its legal hiring in secrecy.
The bill was set to speed through the House committee process Tuesday, but hit a speed bump as dozens of protesters filled legislative halls and committee rooms.
But House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) told reporters that the House will vote on the bill Wednesday.
What happens after it gets to the state Senate remains in question.
Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said Tuesday afternoon that he did not know all the details on the bill. It may have some provisions the Senate would want, he said, but he hasn’t spoken to House members about it.
“I would say that bill’s probably got a long way to go,” Berger said.
Republicans in both chambers are interested in shortening the early voting period for primaries. The shorter early voting period is not in the House bill now, but it is a provision the Senate could add.
Rep. Hugh Blackwell (R-Burke), a bill sponsor, told the House Election Law Committee meeting Tuesday morning that the aim is more integrity.
“We’re not trying to put up obstacles so much as to do what we can to improve, where we can, the integrity of the process,” he said.
Nonetheless, critics said, the bill would create more obstacles for eligible voters.
Under the bill, the state Board of Elections would conduct an audit after each primary and general election. After an analysis of government databases, the state board would have up to six days after an election to send county boards lists of names of people who should have their votes discarded.
NC elections administrators used to steer clear of backing candidates. No more.
“Why are we adding this provision?” asked Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) “It does seem like what’s going to happen is you’re going to have eligible ballots tossed.”
Harrison and Rep. Phil Rubin (D-Wake) worked with bill sponsors to make some changes before the Election Law meeting, but continued to question some of its other provisions.
State Auditor Dave Boliek, a Republican, would be able to select counties for post-election audits.
Rubin said it was not right to have a partisan who campaigns for candidates conducting these audits. Boliek is an elected official who campaigned for Berger this year during his primary.
“I know the statute says it won’t affect the outcome of the election, but going into the county as part of the group running for office and grabbing your ballot boxes, he’s going to send a message,” Rubin said.
At a news conference, Rubin also objected to the provision that cuts the office of Democratic State Attorney General Jeff Jackson out of state elections legal cases and directs the elections board to hire private attorneys instead.
The bill would make secret from the public “[a]ll communications or documents made or used in connection with the provision of legal services by counsel employed or retained under this section” by exempting those documents from the state’s public records law.
The state elections board would absorb the cost of hiring the private lawyers. It’s unclear whether their legal costs would be public record.
The NC elections board hired a lawyer who was also suing it
Rubin said the elections board shouldn’t spend taxpayer money on outside lawyers. If they do, “we need to know and understand and have accountability for how that money is being spent,” he said. “Otherwise, you have a situation where you’re creating legislation that leads to litigation. Then you can hire your friends and give them a ton of money to defend it. It’s not a good system for government accountability.”
At the news conference, bill opponents said it would make it harder for people to vote and have their ballots counted.
“The General Assembly has decided that it is okay to take our free and fair elections and put a very heavy foot on the scale,” said Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Emancipate NC. “We deserve election laws that make it easier and not harder for all of us to exercise our constitutional right to vote.”
Among the bill’s provisions are:
Requiring military and overseas voters to submit documentation showing their most recent North Carolina address along with their registration applications. They would also be required to submit photo identification with their ballots. The ID requirement puts into law a state Supreme Court decision in Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin’s unsuccessful attempt to throw out ballots in his 2024 race for a Supreme Court seat. Making overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina but vote in the state because their parents last lived here ineligible to vote in state or local elections. This also reflects a state Supreme Court decision in the Griffin case. Griffin’s lawsuit referred to these voters as “never residents.” Giving voters who cast provisional ballots because they didn’t show ID, or who have mistakes or omissions on their absentee ballot envelopes, called “curable deficiencies”, a few more days to show their ID or correct the mistakes. The bill extends the deadline for corrections from Friday after an election to Tuesday after an election. Giving county election boards more time to announce absentee ballot counts, moving the deadline from Friday after an election to Tuesday.A new version of the bill removed the 25 positions that state Elections Director Sam Hayes would have been able to convert to at-will, political hires.
Hayes told reporters he never asked for those.
The state budget has 21 additional positions for the elections office, he said. Those would be non-partisan jobs covered by the state Human Resources Act.
The Election Law Committee meeting was in a relatively small room. Some of the bill’s critics who traveled to the Legislative Building for debate on the bill were not allowed to enter. The committee did not accept public comment Tuesday morning. Critics who were able to secure seats held up red cards when Blackwell described a section of the bill they didn’t like.
After the committee meeting, a crowd surrounded Hayes and reporters interviewing him, chanting “Shame.”
Blackwell declared the bill needs more work, including the provision banning state and local board of elections members from encouraging voting. He reopened the online portal for public comment..
The House Rules Committee pulled the bill from consideration Tuesday afternoon. House Rules Chairman John Bell (R-Wayne) said after the meeting the bill needs changes. Bills are heard in Rules before they move to full House votes.
Darline Rowe, a member of the group Democracy Out Loud, said she hoped the delay meant legislators were reconsidering the bill. She was at the Rules Committee meeting Tuesday.
“I’m hoping this gathering of people might have made them think twice about it and maybe they want to review it a little further,” she said.
Staff writer Brandon Kingdollar contributed to this report.
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