NORTH CAROLINA — A state group representing county board of elections directors is raising concerns about procedural changes included in a purported Helene recovery bill. The group said if the supermajority overturns the governor’s veto of Senate Bill 382, provisions in the bill would sacrifice accuracy and efficiency of election operations.
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The North Carolina Association of Directors of Elections sent a letter to General Assembly members Wednesday outlining its concerns with the 131-page bill; it includes expansive power shifts from incoming Democratic officials to Republicans.
“Unfortunately, it does not appear that the drafters of SB 382 consulted with election administrators during the drafting process,” NCADE President and Brunswick County Board of Elections Director Sara LaVere wrote in the letter. “The timelines and requirements in the legislation do not align with the practical realities of running elections in our state.”
LaVere said NCADE respects the legislature’s ability to shape election law and did not have a position on S.B. 382’s transfer of State Board of Elections appointment authority from the governor to the state auditor. Currently, the governor chooses the chair of each county board, while the state board chooses two members from each party. Republican Dave Boliek will take over as state auditor on May 1, 2025, shifting the choice of board chair from Democratic incoming governor, Josh Stein.
“I know there is a lot in the bill that is being touted as politically motivated and we’re staying out of all that,” she said. “We really just have concerns about these very technical aspects of election administration.”
NCADE focused on new requirements and timelines for administering and counting absentee and provisional ballots, including:
- Requiring all provisional ballots to be researched and counted by 5 p.m. on the third day after Election Day
- Shortening the deadline to request a mail-in ballot from the Tuesday before the election to the second Tuesday before the election
- Change the timeline for voters to fix or “cure” their ballots related to voter photo ID, voter registration, and mail ballot deficiencies to noon on the 3rd day after Election Day
- Require all mail-in ballots to be counted in an ongoing meeting starting at 5 p.m. on Election Day. Mail-in ballot tallies would be announced at 5 p.m. on the third day after Election Day, including civilian mail ballots fixed or “cured” by noon that day.
Currently, election offices receive absentee ballots until 7:30 p.m on Election Day. LaVere noted staff must simultaneously verify voter information, troubleshoot precinct issues, conduct audits, and reconcile ballot counts.
“We have just come through an early voting period where we’re working 16 hour days [and] all of the weekends,” she said. “We are exhausted and trying to do this very meticulous work without making any mistakes and make sure everything is thoroughly researched and dispositioned.”
Port City Daily reached out to local General Assembly officials about the letter but did not receive a response from anyone by press. LaVere said she’d spoken with Rep. Charles Miller (R-Brunswick) the day of the House vote last Tuesday, but he had not yet had time to read the bill.
LaVere added counties’ election staff and resources are already tightly strained. Brunswick County has six full-time board of election staff members and around 12 part-time positions during peak election season months.
“We had over 1,000 provisional ballots to consider [in Brunswick County],” she said. “We handled the bulk of those the day before the canvass, nine days after the election. We were finishing up our audits and making sure all of them were dispositioned properly the night before — it takes a lot of time to research those.”
North Carolina counties have changed elections directors 58 times in the last five years — including seven positions in 2024 — according to the state board of elections. A June Carolina Public Press investigation found a correlation between high turnover and low pay.
State Board of Elections Director Karen Brinson-Bell has repeatedly requested greater budget allocations for the agency; more than two thirds of North Carolina counties spent less on elections than the national average in fiscal year 2022-2023 budgets, according to NC Budget & Tax Center.
Brinson-Bell also raised concerns about S.B. 382 last week; she said her staff was not consulted on the legislation and 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.”
Gov. Roy Cooper described the legislation as a “sham” in his Tuesday veto of the bill after the General Assembly passed it along party lines. The bill eschewed the normal committee process and was publicly released an hour before a contentious House debate last week.
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