NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The North Carolina General Assembly, in a secretive and last-minute effort before its Republican supermajority dissolves, passed a bill modifying election laws, among other items in its 131 pages.
Though shrouded as a disaster relief measure, Senate Bill 382 mostly outlines power shifts away from Democrats before the new General Assembly takes office Jan. 1. When this happens, state Republicans will lose their supermajority in the House, though retain it in the Senate.
S.B. 382 passed the House on Tuesday, the Senate Wednesday, forgoing the typical committee process and bipartisan debate. It now awaits Gov. Roy Cooper’s decision, though the GOP has the power to override a veto.
The bill does provide $227 million to the state’s fund for Hurricane Helene relief, but western North Carolina Democrats have said it does not go far enough.
Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover) criticized the bill during a Tuesday evening debate that took place only an hour after the conference report was made available to the public.
“To call it a relief bill is laughable,” Butler told Port City Daily. “Western North Carolina is a Trojan Horse for all these policy provisions.”
The bill makes several changes to how elections are carried out in the state, including moving up several deadlines to return and count ballots.
When the bill takes effect on Jan. 1, all absentee ballots would need to be counted on Election Day in an ongoing meeting starting at 5 p.m., implying workers would need to work around the clock until every last one is tabulated.
The current law only requires absentee ballots cast before Election Day to be counted on Election Day. Supplemental meetings can be used after to finish counting Election Day absentees, along with provisionals and overseas ballots.
However, the New Hanover County Board of Elections has admitted it did not follow that mandate. According to Director Rae Hunter-Havens, absentee ballots received between Nov. 1 and Nov. 5, Election Day, were scheduled for processing at the board’s supplemental meeting on Nov. 14.
An Oct. 31 “administrative cutoff” was set and sounded alarms among community members, county staff and county commissioner Dane Scalise, the latter filing an election protest over the matter. The BOE dismissed it at its Nov. 15 canvass meeting, stating the timeline for counting the ballots, whether law-abiding or not, would not change the outcome of the election.
The BOE has not offered an explanation on the discrepancy outside the claim they were following State Board of Elections guidance. The state board has denied this and said the absentee ballots should have been counted on Election Day.
The new law allows for provisionals and overseas ballots to be counted in supplemental meetings, though for provisionals, this would need to occur by 5 p.m. on the third day post-election. This would be another change for the New Hanover County Board of Elections, which has historically scheduled its supplemental meetings the day before canvass, this year Nov. 14, nearly 10 days post-election.
As for correcting ballots or voter registration requirements, voters will have only three days post-election to do so, eliminating six days to cure ballots with discrepancies for addresses or I.D. verifications. The deadline is now noon on Friday after the election. Boards are then given just five hours to tally absentee ballots, as the law requires the totals be announced at 5 p.m. that same day.
State Board of Elections Director Karen Brinson-Bell said her staff were not consulted on the legislation that the administrative changes “may make it impossible for the county boards of elections to adequately ensure every eligible ballot cast is counted, especially in high turnout elections.”
Port City Daily also reached out to New Hanover County BOE members and Hunter-Havens for their thoughts on the bill.
Board member and Republican Tom Morris did not offer an opinion but said the board will “review any changes to the law and make adjustments accordingly.”
Chair Derrick Miller, a Democrat, said the provisions would make election administration more difficult and expensive (the bill does not include more state funding for local boards) and provides “no benefit” he can see.
“It certainly does not make our already secure and reliable elections one tiny bit more secure and reliable,” Miller said. “As far as I can tell, this bill appears to have been written without the benefit of advice from any legitimate elections expert. It is unfortunate that objective observers could look at this bill and wonder what the intent behind it could possibly be.”
Speaking on the bill, Republican House Speaker Phil Berger cast doubt on election processes on Wednesday, namely the North Carolina Supreme Court justice contest.
“We’re seeing played out at this point another episode of ‘count until somebody you want to win wins,’” Berger said to WUNC, but he did not provide any evidence of improper practice.
Brinson-Bell has asked Berger to retract his statement, citing the baseless public mistrust his comments could instill.
Losing GOP candidate Jefferson Griffin has submitted an election protest challenging the validity of more than 60,000 ballots cast across the state. The New Hanover County BOE has set its evidentiary hearing for Monday, Nov. 25, to review the claims.
The bill also changes campaign finance regulations, allowing political parties to use party headquarters building funds to bankroll a legal action or make donations to candidate legal expense funds. Building funds may also accept unlimited corporate contributions, whereas these were limited previously.
As well, S.B. 382 transfers appointments on the State Board of Elections from the governor to the state auditor. Republican Dave Boliek will take over the board of elections on May 1, 2025.
“We felt that the auditor’s office was a place that that would work, would be a place where it would function appropriately,” Berger said to WUNC.
In addition to losing election board appointments, the law also calls for the governor, who will be Democrat Josh Stein, to lose majority appointments on the Utilities Commission. It also requires the governor to fill judicial vacancies from a list of recommendations provided by the political party of the departing judge, meaning he can’t replace a departing Republican with a Democrat.
The legislation prevents the next attorney general, Democrat Jeff Jackson, from taking a differing stance from the General Assembly in lawsuits involving the state. Jackson succeeds Stein, who declined to defend some actions by the legislature he considered to be unconstitutional.
Democrat Mo Green is also taking over as superintendent of public instruction, but the office will lose the power to appeal decisions made by the board overseeing charter schools.
These end-of-year actions taken by state Republicans mirror measures it tried to pass in the 2023 legislative session, some of which triggered lawsuits.
Senate Bill 512, deemed a “power grab” by Cooper and passed over his veto, takes away some of the governor’s appointments or dilutes executive representation on 11 state boards or commissions, including the Wildlife Resources Commission and the Commission for Public Health.
Outgoing Gov. Cooper and the North Carolina Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the bill; a three-judge panel upheld most of the transfers, excluding the Economic Investment Committee and Board of Transportation.
House Bill 488 was also challenged and upheld. It created a new Residential Code Council.
The North Carolina Democratic Party and Democratic National Committee filed their lawsuit against Senate Bill 747. The law made various changes to same-day registration and absentee voting, and eliminated the three-day “grace period” to accept ballots postmarked on Election Day but delivered after.
The law was allowed to take effect, meaning absentee ballots now have to be returned by close of polls on Election Day, but only after the state outlined a process to notify voters of undeliverable mail and provide an opportunity to cure if the state is unable to verify the voter’s address. Voters are given nine days to do this now, but in January, the timeline goes down to three days.
Thus far, no lawsuits have been filed on this year’s Senate Bill 382, though the ACLU of North Carolina has issued a statement calling it an “anti-democracy” bill. It states:
“The politicians pushing this legislation were not able to secure the results they wanted through the election, so they are attempting to enforce their will through political strong-arming. This is a clear attempt to undermine the voices of North Carolina voters. Stripping the incoming governor and attorney general of power undermines the fundamental principle that voters choose their elected officials, not politicians.”
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