The interior of the North Carolina Capitol Building in Raleigh, North Carolina. | Wikimedia Commons/Riokausa
The interior of the North Carolina Capitol Building in Raleigh, North Carolina. | Wikimedia Commons/Riokausa
The top-ranking leaders in the North Carolina's House and Senate said lawmakers will defend the state's election laws from what they are calling partisan lawsuits from attorneys representing the Democratic Party, adding that the litigation's timing is bad because of COVID-19.
"The legislative process is the proper forum for elections reforms like those passed in bipartisan bills in 2019 to improve North Carolina's absentee ballot process," House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) and Senate President Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said in a joint statement published on Moore's website May 21.
The lawsuits take issue with the absentee ballot rules overwhelming approved by the state General Assembly and signed by Gov. Roy Cooper last year and rules about the state’s existing ‘no-excuse’ vote-by-mail program in addition to the uniform hours for the ‘one-stop early voting’ program, according to the website post.
“Partisan lawsuits brought by Washington, D.C. Democratic Party attorneys in a pandemic, by contrast, are clearly the wrong process for effective election reforms, and we will defend the rights of voters against these partisan challenges," the Republicans said.
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