The North Carolina Senate on Tuesday advanced a pair of elections law bills, giving State Auditor Dave Boliek the ability to probe how elections are conducted and allowing those appealing State Board of Elections decisions to file suit in their home counties.
An overhauled version of House Bill 958 introduced Tuesday also slashes the number of early voting days in primaries and other non-general elections and allows more campaign finance donations and expenditures to remain secret.
The bill requires Boliek to audit election systems and controls for each county in the state at least once in a six-year period, a provision that has raised concern among many that the auditor could be politicizing election results.
The General Assembly moved the State Board of Elections from control of the Governor to control of the auditor shortly after the 2024 election, with Democrats continuing to hold the Executive Mansion and Boliek, a Republican, winning the auditor's seat.
Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke, said the legislation is not intended to give Boliek the power to overturn election results, pointing to a line in the bill that says, "No findings in audits under this section shall be used as grounds to challenge the final result of an election."
Daniel also stressed that the auditor isn't being tasked with auditing election data, but instead focusing on how the election is conducted.
Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, D-Mecklenburg, argued that the State Board of Elections could audit a county board, not the auditor.
"The auditor is a statewide elected official himself — or herself in the future — and they'd be participating in these random audits," Mohammed said.
The bill also requires that anyone seeking to represent a political party on the ballot belong to that party for 365 days, up from the current 90 days. There is an exception if that party's executive committee grants the candidate a waiver.
Additionally, the bill slashes the number of early voting days for primaries, special elections, second primaries, runoffs and municipal elections from 17 days to 10 days. This was a policy goal that Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, has been calling for since losing his primary election to challenger Sam Page, Rockingham County's longtime sheriff.
Daniel said the change is being made "to reduce the administrative burden on boards of elections and candidates in elections where very few people vote anyway."
Mohammed said the early voting days should be longer in primaries, particularly because so many of North Carolina's elections are effectively decided there due to gerrymandered districts.
"Leave that discretion to the county boards if they want to shorten the period, but minimum they'd have 10 days, not just automatically move it from 17 to 10," Mohammed said.
Mary Potter Surma, a former Republican member of the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections, told the Elections Committee she supports cutting down on early voting days in primaries.
"The reality is, except for a general election, for a primary you don't have a lot of activity that first week. You have it at the very beginning, you don't have much that first full week, you have a lot the second week. I'm glad you did not limit early voting for a general election because that would certainly create a problem in the larger counties," Surma said.
Brian Kennedy, Democracy NC's policy director, argued that the changes mean North Carolina will have fewer early voting days than both Virginia and South Carolina in primaries and special elections.
"Rather than saying this is not something that we need because of relatively low voter turnout, we should be doing all that we can to encourage voter turnout during every election, whether a primary or a general," Kennedy said.
On the campaign finance front, the bill increases the threshold for reporting campaign finance expenses from $50 to $100; increases the threshold for which campaigns don't have to report the identities of donors from $50 to $100; and increases the threshold for campaigns to immediately report donations within 48 hours of an election from $1,000 to $2,000.
During debate on the Senate floor, Democrats unsuccessfully introduced several amendments that were voted down along party lines, including efforts to eliminate political hires at the State Board of Elections, make the State Board an independent agency and overhaul rules around redistricting.
Mohammed also unsuccessfully introduced an amendment leaving the early voting in primaries at 17 days.
"Let people come out and vote. Don't shorten that period," Mohammed said, pointing to the importance of primaries in deciding the representation of many North Carolina legislative and Congressional districts.
Daniel also successfully introduced an amendment reducing the time for voter challenges to three business days after an election, down from five business days.
The bill passed 28 to 13, along party lines of the lawmakers present.
House Bill 834
The State Senate also advanced House Bill 834 on Tuesday, tweaking the cure period for elections and allowing someone appealing a decision of the N.C. State Board of Elections to file that lawsuit in either Wake County Superior Court or the superior court of the county where they live.
"I think it's a matter of basic common fairness for the voters of the people of North Carolina because folks in Mecklenburg elect Superior Court judges in Mecklenburg County, folks in Wake County elect judges in Wake County, folks in Gaston elect Superior Court judges in Gaston County. Why do we continue to make the voters who voted in the same manner in Wake County more important than voters in your county or my county?" Sen. Brad Overcash, R-Gaston, said during the Senate Elections Committee meeting on Tuesday.
Under current law, those appeals are automatically filed in Wake County Superior Court. But prior to 2003, the case could be filed in either Wake County or the county where the person filing the appeal lives.
The new version of House Bill 834 would also allow voters who need to correct their voter registration forms to do so within five days of when the election ends, up from three days. The bill also requires county boards to notify voters with potentially curable ballots of the issue within one business day of identifying it.
House Bill 834 passed 42-0, along bipartisan lines.
The State House will need to vote to approve both House Bill 834 and House Bill 958 before they can go to Gov. Josh Stein for his consideration. The House is set to return to Raleigh next week.
