North Carolina Senate passes updates to mask bill, last-minute campaign finance addition
North Carolina Senate members voted Thursday to pass a revised version of a bill outlawing mask wearing in public. They also added a campaign finance section to the bill.
Despite there being 50 members of the N.C. Senate, during their vote, only 28 members weighed in. That’s because, according to the News & Observer, Senate Democrats walked out on the voting session concerned about the last-minute nature of the changes.
The original bill HB 237, “Unmasking Mobs and Criminals,” would have reverted North Carolina to pre-COVID laws and did not allow for any exceptions of mask wearing for immunocompromised people or those with disabilities.
Primarily Democrats were concerned about this lack of protection for those with health issues, and Republicans argued those people had nothing to worry about as police would use their best judgment.
After deliberation, concerned residents and Democrats got a compromise.
The new version of the bill states that “medical or surgical grade masks” can be used in public for the purpose of “preventing the spread of contagious disease,” although it must be removed if a law enforcement officer requests to identify the person.
The mask bill also has several implications for protesting in North Carolina. It states that this bill would criminalize people who intentionally impede traffic for a demonstration and would make the organizer of that event liable for injury that occurs. It would also increase a convicted person’s sentence by one class if they were arrested wearing a mask.
The purpose, supporters of the bill said, is to protect communities from bad actors using masks to conceal their identity citing people taking advantage of current mask policies to intimidate people and ‘smash and grab.’
Along with the compromise for those with health issues came a newly added section on campaign finance.
Under Section 5. (b), the bill allows federal political committees and organizations to contribute financially to North Carolina candidates. The contributor must donate in line with federal law and report their organization to the state board within 10 days.
The change was sudden, Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake County, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. He called it an “11th hour change” that would be considered “political laundering.”
House Democratic Leader Rep. Robert Reives agreed claiming the change is a bid to elect a Republican governor.
“They are changing the rules in the middle of an election that is already underway in an attempt to buy the Governor’s mansion in North Carolina,” Reives said in a post on X.
This change in the bill comes days after Democratic candidate for North Carolina’s governor Josh Stein released an ad attacking Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson’s stance on abortion and, according to first quarter campaign finance reports, Stein has outraised his Republican competitor by over $8 million.
The revised bill still needs to be voted on in the House.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: North Carolina mask bill passes in Senate with revisions
