Opinion: New NC election laws making it more difficult for voters to cast ballots
I have been an unaffiliated voter for many years. It is important to me because I worked for and volunteered with nonprofits since I moved to Asheville in 1996. Nonprofits, at least those designated as 501(c)(3), are required to be nonpartisan by law.
However, it appears that supporters of one political party are questioning an issue that should not be partisan — democracy. Some are election deniers, many say there is rampant voter fraud. Others are questioning the objectivity and professionalism of the various boards of elections as well as poll workers. Equally as egregious, in my opinion, they are offering solutions to “problems” that don’t exist that will make casting a ballot more difficult for voters and for running elections for those same boards of elections.
There has been little evidence of significant voter fraud let alone rampant fraud, but the laws and initiatives that are being promoted include the following:
Photo IDs have been or are in the process of being implemented in many states including North Carolina. There is little evidence that photo IDs will do anything to address fraud. Rather, this requirement will make it more difficult for those marginalized to be able to vote and will slow down the lines for those casting ballots.
One bill (SB 747) would require absentee ballots be received by the close of business on Election Day. For many years, North Carolina has required absentee ballots be postmarked no later than Election Day and received by the Friday after. Why make such a change? “Canvass” by each Board, which takes place 10 days after Election Day, is when the final and official tally of votes is completed. Requiring that absentee ballots be received on Election Day is unnecessary.
That same bill would require voters to complete a provisional ballot for same-day registration during early voting. For those with limited time, same-day registration is a great benefit, but this action will discourage voters. In 2020, over 110,000 people in N.C. took advantage of same-day registration. Provisional ballots take longer to complete, are not guaranteed to be counted, take a lot more work by each county board to review, and are likely to dissuade a significant number of people to cast a ballot.
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These are only some of the negative changes in place or being proposed that would hamper voters. What is sometimes not considered is how those same laws make the work of the county and state Boards of Elections more difficult. Here are some of the ramifications of what the N.C. General Assembly has implemented or is considering:
The costs of implementing photo ID will require additional funding from the state. Yet, both the N.C. House and Senate are not coming close to covering the funding levels the N.C. State Board of Elections has requested.
N.C. is not a member of ERIC (Electronic Registration Information Center). This organization has been shown to do good work in cross referencing voters who have moved and shared that information with boards of elections in member states. This is an important step in determining who is eligible to vote. Yet many states, without any evidence, are characterizing ERIC as being partisan and either not considering joining or leaving.
Another bill (SB 749) does much to disrupt the process of choosing members for county and state boards of elections in N.C. The governor is involved in that decision-making process, but this bill would take away all input by the governor. In addition, the bill would change the number of members on each board, with the likely result of deadlocked boards which, in turn, would jeopardize the decisions of boards and impact voting.
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The reason for these bills can only be seen as an effort to take the power to make decisions about voting away from the voters and the governor and give more control to the N.C. General Assembly. Implementation of such bills will actually erode the trust in how elections are run in N.C.
Voting is at the heart of a democracy. It currently works well in this country and the state, but those who offer misinformation about its safety and accuracy must not be given the opportunity to change the rules. Unfortunately, the N.C. Senate has passed both these bills, but you can still tell your N.C. House member to oppose these bills.
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Ron Katz is a retired nonprofit professional and administrator for the website “WNC Social Justice Advocacy Guide”. He also edits a nonpartisan Voting & Democracy Rights e-newsletter for WNC among other volunteer activities.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: New NC election laws make voting more difficult
