NC House passes its controversial elections bill with only GOP votes

A divided state House approved an elections bill Tuesday that clears a path for more ballot challenges, election audits, and registration removals. 

Democrats roundly criticized House Bill 958, saying it will make unfounded voter challenges more likely, sow confusion, inject partisanship into election administration, and make it harder for eligible voters to have their votes count. 

“You don’t know the fear of having a government agency coming in and turning your life upside down,” said House Democratic Leader Robert Reives (D-Chatham).

The House approved the bill in a party-line 66-47 vote. It now goes to the Senate for consideration. 

Rep. Phil Rubin (D-Wake) argued the bill is based on the false premise that the voter rolls are overrun with ineligible voters, when study after study has shown that isn’t the case.“This bill legislates a fantasy, and it chases ghosts,” he said. 

Rubin and Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) worked with the bill’s sponsor, Rep Hugh Blackwell (R-Burke), to make changes to the bill. Some of the bill’s controversial sections were removed before it hit the House floor.  But those changes weren’t enough to win Rubin’s and Harrison’s support. 

Democrats objected to giving Republican Auditor Dave Boliek the power to go into counties to perform post-election audits. The counties would be chosen at random. That responsibility currently belongs to the State Board of Elections, which is not an elected body. The auditor, on the other hand, could be auditing his own re-election results.

Under the bill, the N.C.  Board of Elections would be able to hire private attorneys to represent them, bypassing the office of Democratic state Attorney General Jeff Jackson. And state election lawsuits would no longer automatically be heard in Wake County.

House set to vote on sweeping election bill despite opposition to overseas voter restrictions

Harrison said the provision could lead to “venue shopping.” 

“We’re opening ourselves up to real mischief with that provision,” she said.  

Democrats debated the bill for nearly an hour. Debate ended when Rep. Zack Hawkins (D-Durham) said Republicans see a wave election coming and are trying to skew results in their favor. 

House Speaker Destin Hall  banged his gavel to cut off Hawkins’ remarks, saying he was impugning members’ motives, which is against House rules, and called the vote.  

No one spoke in support of the bill during the floor debate, but Hall told reporters after the vote that the bill “essentially makes sure our elections are accurate. And at the end of the day, I don’t think anybody really believes it’s difficult to vote in the state, because it’s simply not.”