NC Senate passes elections bill cutting primary early voting days, more tweaks

RALEIGH, N.C. — After a tumultuous road to a vote, North Carolina lawmakers further advanced a sweeping elections bill on Tuesday with Senate approval.

The legislation, which was added and subtracted from House and Senate committees numerous times throughout the process due to controversial provisions, passed the Senate 28-13. It must go back to the House for final approval.

The Senate fast-tracked the bill on Tuesday, from a morning committee to final vote that evening. Sen. Warren Daniel brought the bill, HB 958, to the Senate Elections Committee with several changes from the House’s version, including decreasing the number of early voting days during primary elections and removing deceased people from voter registration rolls.

The House at the end of June advanced a version of the bill that would create new methods to challenge electoral ballots, reduce some requirements for reporting campaign finance and require the state auditor, who is currently a Republican, to conduct post-election audits in randomly selected counties.

Before Tuesday, it was unclear if the Senate would take up the bill since Republican Senate leader Phil Berger had told reporters that it was not a done deal, The News & Observer previously reported.

The Senate also unanimously advanced a second elections bill, HB 834, which began as a completely different bill but was amended to govern judicial review of state elections board decisions and delivering absentee ballots.

Now, both bills head back to the House, which is scheduled to convene next week.

A few House Democrats on Tuesday announced they would be filing a different bill later this week with different election provisions, including protections for poll workers and other elections staff members.

As the Senate voted on HB 958, several protestors in the gallery began shouting, “The people united will never be defeated.” Some were escorted out.

Berger after the vote said the “bills were good bills as far as the election process is concerned.”

He said he expects the House will consider both bills, “and hopefully they’ll vote on at least one of them, if not both of them.”

Reducing early voting days during primary election

The Senate’s version of the sweeping elections bill would reduce the number of early voting days during primary and special elections from 17 to 10 days.

Daniel, a Burke County Republican, said the provision aims to reduce administrative burden on election officials.

Berger previously told reporters that he would support a provision reducing the number of early voting days during primary elections. The Senate leader lost his primary in March to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page.

Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, said in committee that many of the races in the legislature and Congress are decided during the primary election.

He suggested giving county boards the discretion to reduce the early voting period if they chose, and setting a minimum of 10 days.

Daniel said “we can certainly think about it,” but that a congressional race with more than one county on different early voting schedules might not be feasible.

Mohammed proposed the 10 minimum days as an amendment to the bill. It was tabled by a vote of 28-13.

A few advocates said during public comment in committee meetings that reducing the number of early voting days would restrict some people’s ability to vote.

Brian Kennedy, policy director for Democracy North Carolina, said the 10-day period would be fewer than two of North Carolina’s neighbors: Virginia, which has 45 days of early voting, and South Carolina, which has two weeks.

Democrats question elections bill provisions

One provision in HB 958 would require election officials to use U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data to identify registered voters who have died and then remove the voter’s information from registration records.

Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch, a Wake County Democrat, said there is evidence that some people are listed as dead who have not died, and that the bill could be amended “to have a notification that goes to that person so they can correct it in the appropriate amount of time if in fact they are still alive.”

Daniel said during committee that he was willing to listen.

During floor debate, Mohammed proposed an amendment that would have required an investigation into if someone was truly deceased before their name was taken off the roll. That amendment was tabled by a vote of 28-13.

Also on Tuesday, ahead of the Senate vote, Democratic Rep. Allen Buansi held a press conference to discuss election integrity and introduce a new Democrat-backed elections bill, which he said will be filed later this week.

He introduced the Safeguard Fair Elections Act, which he said will be filed later this week. The bill would require that election rules cannot be changed by a judge or court after voters have already cast their ballots and would strengthen protections for poll workers from intimidation and threats.

Rep. Allison Dahle, a Wake County Democrat and a co-sponsor of the Democrats’ bill, said the bill was about protecting integrity of North Carolina’s election.

“Our democracy is strongest when every voice can be heard without fear, and when every voter knows their rights will be protected,” she said. “I believe that protecting the freedom to vote is a responsibility we all share, and I urge everybody in North Carolina, in this building, anywhere, to support this bill and to support our efforts to keep voting safe.”

Other Democratic senators unsuccessfully proposed amendments and spoke in opposition to HB 958 during discussion in the chamber, including changes that would have governed public comment during Board of Elections meetings and establishing guardrails for how the auditor can audit elections.

Several of those senators called the bill an attack on voting rights.

Republican Sen. Ralph Hise of Spruce Pine said the reduction in early voting days during the primary election reflects voter turnout, and that the local cost to counties for holding all of those early voting days is “absolutely real.”

He said the bill was simple and straightforward, and that Democrats put forward amendments too quickly for senators to read and make a decision.

The elections bill also drew opposition from many House Democrats last month because of some provisions than Republicans later toned down some of the major controversies.

One section in the original bill would have prohibited election officials from encouraging voter turnout. The bill was amended to prohibit officials from encouraging turnout for a particular candidate, political party or advocacy group.

Another provision would have allowed the state auditor to choose which counties should be audited. Democrats were worried that this would allow an auditor to target counties where preferred candidates lost, The N&O previously reported.

A few Democratic senators on were opposed to the auditor provision despite the change made in the House.

Two other controversial provisions — banning ranked-choice voting and paying someone to gather signatures for political petitions — were removed from the bill completely during discussions in the House.