Republicans flip flop on an NC voting rule, then mock critics of their new position

For years, North Carolina Republicans have seen their justification for restrictive voter laws fade before their eyes. Judges have forcefully struck down attempts at N.C. voter suppression. Audits have rejected reasons for trying. Finally, the 2020 election affirmed what non-Republicans have been saying all along — that there is no widespread voter fraud in North Carolina.

So what do N.C. Republicans have left? Apparently, it’s mockery.

In a sneering news release late last week, Senate Republicans ridiculed concerns surrounding a new bill that would change N.C. statute allowing absentee ballots that were postmarked on Election Day to arrive up to three days later. Instead, the bill would require ballots to be received on Election Day to be counted.

Said Republican Sen. Ralph Hise of Mitchell County: “Democrats are getting the vapors over the Election Integrity Act.”

That’s a bit of hyperbole, but yes, Democrats and others are concerned. Here’s why: North Carolina’s three-day window has been law since 2009, the N.C. Board of Elections says. It has allowed more people to vote. It hasn’t led to fraud or mistrust in the election process. No one — Democrat or Republican — has launched a serious objection to it. In fact, not one Republican voted against it 12 years ago.

Now, Republicans want to eliminate something that isn’t broken. Why?

Hise argues trust in elections is now an issue. But that’s true not because a three-day window has caused consternation among North Carolinians anytime in the last decade. It’s true because Republicans have spent the four months since Election Day spreading lies about voter fraud. That drumbeat is the real threat to election integrity.

But this is what happens when you run out of justifications for trying to stop people from casting a ballot. Across the country, Republicans are propping up election integrity as an excuse for hundreds of bills that would unnecessarily restrict voting. In Georgia, lawmakers are taking it a step further, trying to persuade voters that access is actually being expanded in a bill that, among other things, limits mobile polling places and drop boxes, bars state officials from mailing unsolicited absentee ballots, makes casting those ballots harder — and even outlaws providing food and drink to voters waiting in line to cast ballots.

We did, however, see a recent and brief moment of honesty about voting bills — not from Republicans but from one of their lawyers. In a U.S. Supreme Court case about Arizona voting restrictions, Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked Arizona GOP attorney Michael Carvin why his client wanted to throw out ballots cast in the wrong district instead of working to validate them. “Because it puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats,” Carvin said. “Politics is a zero-sum game. It’s the difference between winning an election ... and losing.”

Republicans argue that Democrats want the same, accusing them of power grabs whenever they move to increase access to voting. It’s true Democrats surely welcome a more favorable voting landscape, but helping more people vote also happens to be what’s right for our democracy.

That’s increasingly what’s at stake in North Carolina and across the country. Gov. Roy Cooper and N.C. Democrats should reject any bill that attempts to do otherwise. In Washington, U.S. senators considering filibuster reform should try first to improve H.R. 1, the voting rights bill passed by the U.S. House. H.R. 1 offers valuable protections on mail-in voting and gerrymander reform, but it overreaches in regulating political speech and unnecessarily takes on campaign finance issues that should be left to separate legislation.

The goal, for Democrats and Republicans alike, should be to encourage as many people as possible to vote without increasing the chance for meaningful fraud. Calling out attempts to do otherwise isn’t the “vapors.” It’s protecting voters from lawmakers who want to make democracy harder.