North Carolina’s Lame Duck Overhaul Threatens Elections

 The Equation Read More 

During its post-election lame duck session, the Republican-majority North Carolina Senate passed Senate Bill 382, ostensibly to fund Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, though only 12 of its 131 pages relate to hurricane relief. The bulk of the bill makes substantial changes to elections in the state, including stripping appointment powers from the governor and limiting voter rights.

Though vetoed by outgoing Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, who called the bill’s election provisions unconstitutional, the Senate successfully overrode the veto last Monday. Next, the bill goes to the House later this month to vote on an override. Republicans in the state legislature are clearly rushing these changes through right now because they lost their veto-proof majorities in November’s election.

In a blatantly political and partisan move that threatens public control of elections, this bill shifts the power to appoint members to the State Board of Elections from the Democratic Governor-elect Josh Stein to Republican auditor-elect Dave Boliek, who will take over an office that has never before dealt with election administration. Currently, the Governor appoints all five members to the State board and county boards of elections from a list of candidates recommended by both parties—three from the Governor’s party and two from the other party. State and county boards of elections are responsible for establishing voting rules and making decisions such as how many early voting locations a jurisdiction needs.

In 2023, the legislature’s majority made a previous attempt to divert oversight of State Board of Elections away from the Governor, passing a law that transferred administrative authority from the Governor to the Secretary of State. However, that bill was blocked by an panel of superior court judges earlier this year.

This bill also puts undue pressure on election administrators to work quickly rather than accurately as it shortens both the time allotted to count ballots and deadlines for requesting absentee ballots, fixing voter registration errors, or curing absentee and provisional ballots. Under current law, counties have until 10 days after the election to count absentee and provisional ballots and to fix ballot errors or mistakes on voter registrations. The proposed bill would cut this down to three days.

Voting rights groups criticized these changes. A representative for the Voting Rights Lab called the bill “one of the more blatant partisan power grabs for authority over elections that we’ve seen in recent years.” Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, said the bill was an “affront to voters.” Because of the shortened deadlines to fix mistakes on absentee ballots, county officials may not have enough time to contact voters that they need to cure their ballots. This means that fewer ballots will be counted. 

Election administrator Noah Read, a county board of elections member from Alamance County,said of the tightened window to tally ballots, “It would be impossible to do in the amount of time they’re trying to give us. It’s already impossible, so a third of the time? Totally impossible.” Executive Director of the State Board of Elections Karen Brinson Bell echoed this sentiment, saying that these changes would “make it impossible” to properly count votes. Elections Director Sara LaVere from Brunswick County sent a letter to legislators asking them to reconsider their support of the bill. According to LaVere, tightened deadlines like the ones in the proposed bill are how errors happen, while others argue that compressed deadlines will push more election directors to resign at a time when turnover is already a problem.  

Both LaVere and Brinson Bell argue that before lawmakers make changes to election administration, they need to consult the people responsible for administering elections—something legislators failed to do in this case.

These changes take us in the opposite direction from the evidence-based best practices that would enable more people to participate in free and fair elections.

Altogether, the proposed changes to elections would make it harder for voters to have their ballots counted, potentially leaving eligible votes uncounted, and create more challenges for election administrators to accurately count ballots.

Republicans have a super-majority in both the state House and Senate, but three House Republicans initially voted against the bill. If these three representatives vote against the override, it could fail. Even if the House does override the veto, it is likely the proposed changes will be the subject of litigation.