{"id":2114,"date":"2024-11-19T20:23:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T01:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/north-carolina\/?post_type=press&p=2114"},"modified":"2024-11-19T21:32:44","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T02:32:44","slug":"lame-duck-legislature-lashes-out-at-nc-voters-with-insulting-attempt-to-radically-alter-states-election-system","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/north-carolina\/press\/lame-duck-legislature-lashes-out-at-nc-voters-with-insulting-attempt-to-radically-alter-states-election-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Lame-duck legislature lashes out at NC voters with insulting attempt to radically alter state’s election system"},"template":"","class_list":["post-2114","press","type-press","status-publish","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"","featured_image":"","press_type":146,"authors":"","related_issues":false,"related_work":false,"location":36},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":"","name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"

Outgoing legislature is cynically using much-needed disaster relief bill to push through harmful election changes<\/b><\/h3>\r\nRALEIGH \u2013 In the wake of this year\u2019s election, the Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature returned today for a lame-duck session.\r\n\r\nAnd in a failure of transparency, NC House leaders waited until just an hour before that chamber\u2019s Tuesday night floor session to publicly release a dramatically changed, 131-page version of Senate Bill 382<\/strong><\/a>.\r\n\r\nThe bill is purportedly about much-needed hurricane relief, but the stealth measure is also brimming with a slew of unrelated provisions that would force radical changes to state government, undermine North Carolina\u2019s election system, and harm voters.\r\n\r\nIn fact, just 12 pages of the 131-page bill deal with the needed disaster relief. The remaining 119 pages are filled with unrelated measures, many of which are highly controversial.\r\n\r\nAmong the bill\u2019s provisions is a shocking change that would strip the Governor\u2019s longstanding authority to appoint members to North Carolina\u2019s bipartisan State Board of Elections. Republican lawmakers want to seize that power and hand it to the incoming Republican State Auditor, a lesser-known office that has never dealt with election administration.\r\n\r\nThe proposal would also severely reduce the time for voters to correct problems with their provisional ballots. And the bill would drastically limit the time for county boards of elections to count absentee and provisional ballots in future elections, potentially leading to eligible ballots being unfairly thrown out.\r\n\r\nThe sweeping changes are being pushed by legislative leaders as they cling to the final days of their supermajority, which they have apparently lost as a result of this year\u2019s state House elections.\r\n\r\nThe bill passed the NC House on a 63-46 vote Tuesday night, and now goes to the NC Senate for consideration on Wednesday.\r\n\r\nThe following is a statement from Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina<\/b>:\r\n\r\n\u201cOnce again some politicians in the legislature are expressing a deep disdain for our constitutional system of checks and balances. It\u2019s especially shameful that legislative leaders are trying to impose these harmful changes by tying them to unrelated but crucially needed disaster relief. The hurricane relief should be passed without controversial policies attached.\r\n\r\nOur state is blessed with a strong election system, led by an independent, bipartisan State Board of Elections appointed by the chief executive of North Carolina \u2013 the Governor. That has been the case during both Democratic and Republican administrations, and it has served the people of North Carolina well.\r\n\r\nNow, in a cynical ploy, Republican legislative leaders are exploiting the final days of their apparently lost supermajority to ram through a radical dismantling of our election system. They\u2019re attempting this with no public notice and no public input. This is an insult to the people of North Carolina and it undermines trust in our legislature.\r\n\r\nToday\u2019s surprise bill would also make other harmful changes for voters, severely shortening the time for voters to correct issues with their provisional ballots. And it would require county boards of elections to dangerously rush the counting of absentee and provisional ballots \u2013 overburdening county election staff and potentially leading to eligible votes being unfairly thrown out.\r\n\r\nInstead of lashing out at North Carolina voters, lawmakers should focus on doing their jobs and get to work serving the public. The people of North Carolina have had enough of these ridiculous partisan political games. These proposed election changes are poorly conceived, totally unnecessary, and should be soundly rejected.\u201d\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nCommon Cause North Carolina is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.<\/em>"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_add_component","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_add_component":null},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_work","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_work":{"heading":"Work","manually_curate":false,"work":null}}]},"yoast_head":"\nLame-duck legislature lashes out at NC voters with insulting attempt to radically alter state's election system - Common Cause North Carolina<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/north-carolina\/press\/lame-duck-legislature-lashes-out-at-nc-voters-with-insulting-attempt-to-radically-alter-states-election-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lame-duck legislature lashes out at NC voters with insulting attempt to radically alter state's election system\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/north-carolina\/press\/lame-duck-legislature-lashes-out-at-nc-voters-with-insulting-attempt-to-radically-alter-states-election-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause North Carolina\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-20T02:32:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/north-carolina\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/ncleg-night-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/north-carolina\/press\/lame-duck-legislature-lashes-out-at-nc-voters-with-insulting-attempt-to-radically-alter-states-election-system\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/north-carolina\/press\/lame-duck-legislature-lashes-out-at-nc-voters-with-insulting-attempt-to-radically-alter-states-election-system\/\",\"name\":\"Lame-duck legislature lashes out at NC voters with insulting attempt to radically alter state's election system - 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