The interior of the North Carolina Capitol Building in Raleigh, North Carolina. Lawmakers are discussing changes to the vote-by-mail process. | Wikimedia Commons/Riokausa
The interior of the North Carolina Capitol Building in Raleigh, North Carolina. Lawmakers are discussing changes to the vote-by-mail process. | Wikimedia Commons/Riokausa
The policy debate over election regulations continues in the North Carolina Legislature after Republican lawmakers amended a proposal for stronger oversight of absentee ballots.
A current proposal would forbid all-mail elections — meaning no in-person voting — and blocks the state elections board from sending unsolicited absentee ballots, the Carolina Journal reported on June 2. However, the proposal would make it simpler for voting by mail.
Senate Republicans on the Redistricting and Elections Committee changed the proposal's section dealing with mail-in ballots and voter fraud, the Carolina Journal reported. The amendments proposed increasing management and inquiries for these ballots and calls for counties to report extra and under-votes. If a county fails to comply, election officials would have to present a reason to the state board.
The need for the amendments stems from the 2018 9th Congressional race, the Carolina Journal reported. In that widely-covered aftermath, the state ordered a new election after accusations that a GOP operative and associates collected and falsified absentee ballots in the district race.
“Ballot harvesting is not some theoretical, might have happened, whatever else,” Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Madison) said, the Carolina Journal reported. “Someone needs to look into that, and that someone is the Board of Elections.”
Democrats disputed the changes saying they did not have enough time to review the amendments and that the elections board should have had more input since the agency would conduct any investigations, the Carolina Journal reported.
“It would require investigations into every library across our state. That’s a lot of investigations,” Sen. Natasha Marcus (D-Mecklenburg) said, the Carolina Journal reported. “This is an awfully big burden to put on our State Board of Elections to be chasing these red herrings across the state without any evidence that there’s ballot harvesting.”
Lawmakers are trying to minimize any problems related to mail-in voting. Officials estimated that 5% vote by mail but expect that percentage to increase because of COVID-19, the Carolina Journal reported.
Alerts Sign-up