On Wednesday, the House Rules Committee advanced a bill that would make changes to North Carolina elections less than five months before the midterm elections.
HB 958 will likely get a vote before the full House this week. The final committee vote was 14–9. All Democrats and Rep. Tricia Cotham (R-Mecklenburg) voted against.
The bill that passed in committee was a watered-down version of legislation that would have made more significant changes to North Carolina elections.
Removed from this version were provisions that would have allowed State Auditor Dave Boliek to audit the election results in any county of his choice and would have prevented members of county boards of elections from providing neutral information about voting. A provision that would have banned ranked-choice voting in North Carolina was also removed.
State Rep. Lindsey Prather (D-Buncombe) criticized the bill for expanding the state auditor’s powers after his election.
“All of the power-shifting towards that office has taken place after the auditor was elected. So we have changed the job description for this person after they were elected by the state,” she told Cardinal & Pine.
Prior to the changes made in committee, HB 958 would have allowed State Auditor Dave Boliek to order audits of election results in any county of his choosing. The latest version of the bill makes those audits random but still conducted by the state auditor’s office.
Prather said she still opposes this provision and finds the changes unnecessary.
“There’s no problem existing that that provision solves. When there are issues that come up with an election, those issues and complaints and concerns and challenges can be brought before the board, and they can be addressed one at a time,” she said. “This is just additional powers being given to [Boliek].”
One of the provisions that remains in the latest version of HB 958 is one that allows someone to challenge all early votes. Prather said this will only increase political divisions.
“We’re going to see it on both sides. It’s just going to ramp up the debate, it’s going to ramp up the division, it’s going to increase tensions,” she said.
Ultimately, Prather worries that making changes to the election process just months out from the election undermines trust in it.
“It is meant to make people feel like there are these cracks in our election system. Because they think, ‘Why would someone go through all this work to write this bill if these aren’t problems?’” she said. “Because they want you to think these are problems. They are trying to shake voters’ confidence.”
