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Update on Legislation Affecting Voting Rights in NC:

Governor Bev Perdue stepped up to defend the voters of North Carolina by vetoing H-351; that’s the bill to require voters to show a government-issued photo ID each time they vote. The General Assembly failed one effort to override her veto but may try again anytime in the 2011-2012 session. Here’s an update on other legislation that would affect voting rights and elections integrity in North Carolina:

• H-710: Merges the State Ethics Commission, campaign finance section of the State Board of Elections and lobbying division of Secretary of State into a new agency controlled by legislative leaders.
• S-47: Omnibus bill that undermines good government in a dozen ways: slices a week off Early Voting, bans Same-Day Registration, makes judicial elections partisan, repeals the public campaign financing option for three executive branch offices, ends straight-ticket voting, and more. This bill is in the House Committee on Elections. At least it doesn’t kill the judicial public financing program, which has broad bipartisan support among judges and others.
• H-125: Allows counties to open only a few polling sites for second, runoff primaries in local or state partisan elections. Passed the House and is now in the Senate; the local elections section should be removed.
• H-824: Authorizes a professional, nonpartisan staff to draw up new legislative and Congressional district maps, beginning after the 2020 Census. The bipartisan House bill, which passed the House, follows a model used in Iowa, but the Senate leadership is not on board.
• S-32: Reduces the thresholds for a third party to put its candidates on the ballot; it passed the House with bipartisan support but faces opposition in the Senate.  
• S-315: Allows campaign signs on highway right-of-ways under a variety of conditions. This bill has stalled, but may be revived.
• S-411: Local bill to change the composition of Stanly County’s board of education, community college and board of elections – but the last part was thankfully deleted in the final bill that passed; it would have opened a Pandora’s box of partisan gamesmanship in county election administration across the state
• S-456: Allows candidates in nonpartisan elections to list their party affiliation on the ballot. Passed the Senate and is in House Committee on Elections.
• S-620: Includes a last-minute addition that modifies the disclosure of spending by lobbyists. Passed in the final hours of the session, but may need more work to clarify its intent.
• S-712: Provides for rapid disclosure of legislative campaign fundraising during January, in the lucrative month before the General Assembly session begins. It passed the Senate with unanimous support and is in the House.

Republicans also used their new majority power to ram through several bills to change the election method or composition of local governing boards. Because they are local bills, the governor cannot veto them, but some will likely face a challenge under the Voting Rights Act.

These bills are sponsored by NC House and Senate members elected with millions in campaign contributions from ultra-conservative groups seeking to shut down ballot box access for people who do not agree with their agenda.

The Advancement Project calls this organized attempt:
“the largest legislative effort to scale back voting rights in a century.”

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