Republican state legislators in North Carolina are moving quickly to pass measures to restrict Democrat power over elections after likely losing its veto-proof majority in the state House.
While Republicans will maintain control of both the House and Senate in North Carolina, if election results remain where they are, the party is one seat shy of its veto-proof majority in the House. Additionally, Gov.-elect Josh Stein looks poised to be able to exercise more authority than his Democrat predecessor, Gov. Roy Cooper.
Both chambers passed a bill that would weaken the governor’s ability to oversee elections, in particular transferring the power of the governor to appoint members of the currently Democrat-run North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) to the state auditor, Republican Dave Boliek.
“The agility of the General Assembly was demonstrated this week as they passed important legislation, placing the state auditor in an oversight role over the state board of elections,” Jim Womack, president of the North Carolina Election Integrity Team (NCEIT), told The Federalist. “This puts the auditor in a good position to conduct an audit of our elections for the first time in history. That should encourage voters. “
Under the bill, the NCSBE would remain an independent agency, but budgeting and appointments would rest under the authority of the state auditor’s office. According to NC Newsline, NCSBE spokesman Patrick Gannon explained the partisan divide on the board would change hands to Republican control, saying, “It would result in a 3-2 Republican split.” The auditor’s office would also be able to appoint the chairs of the 100 county boards of elections as well.
The measure would also make significant changes to absentee voting by enacting more robust security measures for mail-in ballots. Right now, voters who fail to affix a signature to an absentee ballot or who do not have the address of a witness can provide that information up to one week after Election Day. Voters who do not show up with identification also have a long time to prove identity. The new security measures would allow for two and a half days to fix the issues.
Those measures come after the state’s Supreme Court race, which saw the Republican challenger up by 10,000 votes on Election Day but flip in the incumbent Democrat’s favor by just a couple hundred votes well after Election Day. Those votes came from absentee and provisional ballots, and are being officially protested by groups and candidates.
The new law would also limit the amount of time boards of elections can count absentee and provisional ballots. Absentee votes would need to be counted on election night and provisional could be counted up to three days later.
The bill will now head to Cooper’s desk, where he is expected to veto. But a veto override vote would likely happen early December, as one of the outgoing acts of the supermajority.
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