The entrance to the Durham County Main Library, where voters cast their primary ballots on Feb. 12, 2026, the first day of early voting. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
A sweeping proposal on who can vote, how they can vote, and how votes are counted will be debated at 10 am Tuesday in the N.C. House Elections Committee.
An electronic portal for public comments on House Bill 958 has been established on the General Assembly homepage.
Among other changes, the bill would:
Prohibit state and local elections board members from “encouraging or promoting voter turnout in any election.” Require 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. Make 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.” Give 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. Give county elections boards more time to announce absentee ballot counts, moving the deadline from Friday after an election to Tuesday.The bill would give state Elections Director Sam Hayes the ability to make 25 members of his staff political appointees, exempting them from state Human Resources Act protections and allowing them to be fired at will.
The bill also continues $1.2 million in funding Hayes was granted for seven exempt positions in a mini-budget the legislature approved last year.
Hayes, former general counsel for House Speaker Destin Hall, was hired to run elections administration last year after Republicans became the majority on the state Board of Elections.
The NC elections board hired a lawyer who was also suing it
The bill would remove Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s office from legal cases involving the state Board of Elections. The board will use its own lawyers or hire private lawyers instead.
A mini-budget last year gave the board $1.5 million to hire private lawyers. The House bill does not include a cap, but says the board would “use funds available.”
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.” The bill makes these documents exempt from the state’s public records law.
Earlier this year, NC Newsline used the state’s public records law to obtain a letter written by Phil Strach, the state GOP’s go-to lawyer in elections and redistricting matters, as Hayes was seeking to hire him.
Strach wanted Hayes to sign a waiver acknowledging that his firm was representing clients that were suing the board at the same time. It appears that letters such as Strach’s would no longer be public records under the bill.
Judicial review of state elections board decisions would no longer automatically be heard in Wake County Superior Court. Those reviews could be heard in Wake or in the home county of the person seeking the review.
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