Election legislation roundup: General Assembly of North Carolina

As of Aug. 20, members of the North Carolina General Assembly, which includes the North Carolina House of Representatives and the North Carolina State Senate, have passed nine bills related to election administration since the beginning of the year. Of those nine bills, legislators passed one during the week of Aug. 14-20. Republicans sponsored the one bill. The bill is:

• NC S747: Elections Law Changes, Sens. Kevin Corbin (R), Warren Daniel (R), Carl Ford (R), Ralph Hise (R), Matthew Johnson (R), Paul Newton (R), and Benton Sawrey (R).
  • As amended, this bill:
    • Requires that ballots, election results tapes, and executed ballot applications are retained for at least 22 months after an election or longer if required by federal law.
    • Prohibits the state board of elections, county boards of elections, and county boards of commissioners from accepting private donations or in-kind contributions for conducting elections or employing temporary workers. Makes an exception for donating space for use as a polling location.
    • Establishes that the chair of each political party in a county may appoint two registered voters of that county as election observers at each polling location where a candidate of the party appears on the ballot and up to 10 registered voters as observers at any polling location in the county. Also establishes that the chair of each political party in the state may designate up to 100 registered voters as poll observers in polling locations across the state where a party candidate appears on the ballot. Also allows an unaffiliated candidate to designate two observers at each voting place where that candidate appears on the ballot.
    • Requires a list of election observers to be submitted “electronically or in writing by noon on the business day before each observer is scheduled to serve,” and stipulates to whom these lists must be submitted.
    • Prohibits more than three observers from the same political party from being in the same voting enclosure at one time. 
    • Click the hyperlinked bill number above for more information.

Of the nine bills passed this year, eight have been enacted. Republicans sponsored six bills, while Democrats and a bipartisan group of legislators each sponsored one.  Five of the eight bills are: