New NC election laws take effect amid court challenges

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – As the new year began Monday, several changes to North Carolina’s election laws were scheduled to take effect as opponents to those changes challenge them in court.

During last year’s state legislative session, Republicans approved a variety of reforms over the objection of Gov. Roy Cooper (D).

The first of those new laws, Senate Bill 747, impacts various aspects of elections including mail-in voting, same-day voter registration and the role of poll observers, among other things.

Republicans decided to move up the mail-in ballot deadline to Election Day, eliminating the three-day grace period currently in place. North Carolina had allowed ballots to count as long as they were postmarked by Election Day and arrived at the county election office within three days of the election.

Democrats who objected to the change said it would cause legitimate ballots to be thrown out that would otherwise count. Republicans pointed to what happened in the 2020 election when state election officials settled a lawsuit brought by Democrats that extended the mail-in voting deadline to nine days after the election.

The Democratic National Committee and the North Carolina Democratic Party have sued to block that part of the law and others.

“We’re gonna go through the litigation. We feel confident on the outcome of the merits of that,” said House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland).

Democrats are also challenging provisions that affect people who register and vote on the same day during early voting. Under the new law, those voters will present documentation showing where they live and a photo ID. The state will attempt to send a notice to the address provided. If that notice comes back as undeliverable, then that person’s ballot would be removed from the official count and that voter would not be registered.

A federal judge held a hearing last week regarding that specific aspect of the law.

In addition, Republicans changed the regulations for poll observers, allowing political parties to have a maximum of three of observers at a polling site. Those observers can do things like take notes and listen to conversations that take place but cannot take pictures or video of people’s ballots.

The new law also calls for the State Board of Elections to establish a pilot program in 10 counties this year to implement signature verification software for mail-in absentee ballots. Democrats criticized that aspect of the law, noting that the state already requires a person who votes by mail to get signatures from either two witnesses or a notary public.

The board was scheduled to select the 10 counties that will be part of the pilot at a meeting on Tuesday.

A separate law that Republicans passed and was set to take effect on Monday was temporarily blocked by a three-judge panel in November.

That law would make the state and county boards overseeing elections evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. They’re currently majority Democratic because Gov. Cooper is a Democrat. The law also takes the power to appoint board members from the governor and transfers it to the General Assembly.

Cooper sued, arguing the new law unconstitutionally violates separation of powers. The panel of judges that met in Wake County ruled in Cooper’s favor, citing previous cases regarding the issue.

Speaker Moore said Republicans would appeal that decision but doubted the matter would be resolved in time for it to have any impact on the primary election in March.

“I understand why the three-judge panel in that case took the decision that it did, because it was relying on precedent that frankly we think was bad precedent and should be overturned by the Supreme Court,” said Moore.

While Republicans have argued the law would lead to more bipartisan decision making in the administration of elections, critics worry it could also lead to deadlock. County boards have to decide where to place early voting sites, for example. State law says if there is no resolution to that, a county would default to having only one site.

“I do fear that the political motivations to deadlock are there,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina. “This was soundly rejected by the people of North Carolina in 2018. A previous state Supreme Court also rejected it. So, respect the will of the people.”

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