It’s been a busy couple of weeks on the election front — specifically, the voting front — down in Raleigh and at other points on the compass. The NC House, in a 60-58 vote, OK’d a bill to shorten the early voting period in the state. Bad, no good, horrible call, in my view. It’s…
North Carolina had the closest governor’s race in the country in 2008, and only Missouri had a closer presidential contest. Both went the Democrats’ way, in large part because of the unprecedented effort in the state by the campaign of presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Obama campaign had a paid staff of 400 with 47 storefront…
A bill that would shorten North Carolina’s early voting period would create longer lines at the polls and increase the cost of elections, the executive director of the state elections board said Wednesday. Gary Bartlett’s comments came in a memo shortly after the House narrowly passed the measure that would reduce the current 21/2-week early…
A Senate panel on Tuesday took a look at a bill that would require North Carolina voters to show a photo ID when they go to the polls to cast their ballots. “I think it does ensure integrity in our elections process,” Sen. Debbie Clary, R-Cleveland, told a Senate Judiciary Committee. “It ensures that you…
North Carolina’s early voting would be scaled back by a week under a bill that won tentative approval from the state House on Thursday. “This is clearly not an indictment against early voting,” said unaffiliated Rep. Bert Jones of Rockingham County, the sponsor of the bill. “I guess the question is, how long is enough?”
Politically tinged legislation to cut North Carolina’s early voting period by a week hinges on Democratic worries they’ll lose voters and Republican insistence the shorter time is more efficient. The state House is scheduled to vote on the measure Monday. A tentative vote last week passed by a close margin, meaning a veto by Democratic Gov. Beverly…
Bills requiring local special elections to be held on general election days and bringing military voting guidelines in line with national standards passed the House Monday night. The special election date bill, sponsored by Harry Warren, requires special elections – such as bond referendums – to be held when voters would also be going to…
On a party-line vote, the House Elections committee voted today to shorten the early voting period from 18 days to 11 days. Early or “one-stop” voting has become increasingly popular over the past few years. A recent study by Catawba College professor Dr. Michael Bitzer found that 60% of the ballots cast in NC’s 2008…
North Carolina residents would have one week less to cast ballots before state and local elections in legislation narrowly approved by a House committee on Wednesday. Supporters said the proposal would save money, but opponents argue it would discourage citizens — particularly Democrats — from voting.The House Elections Committee voted 16-14 to delay the start…
Lawyers for a group of North Carolina residents who favor nonpartisan municipal elections in their city urged a federal appeals court in Washington today to strike down the federal law the U.S. Justice Department enforced to block a referendum to change the city’s electoral scheme. The city of Kinston, N.C., sought permission from the Justice…
North Carolina currently ranks high in election integrity, but it wasn’t always so. Prior to 2000, we had no uniform standards for voting systems and election administration. Our 100 counties used 18 different types of voting machines, some nearly 40 years old. Four suppliers of the machines were no longer in business, maintenance was limited,…
A Republican-sponsored NC Senate bill, SB 657, has been introduced that, if enacted, would severely cripple the state’s One Stop Early Voting/Same-day Voter Registration law that helped President Barack Obama win North Carolina in 2008. Indeed, the bill would eliminate same-day registration, an important tool of voter empowerment for communities of color, proponents say. The goal,…
Heading into a presidential election in which North Carolina could be pivotal, a new Republican-backed bill would curtail early voting in the state and bar new voters from registering at the polls. The Senate bill introduced last week would shrink the early-voting period by at least a week, end it on Sundays and stop so-called “same-day…
There was a lively discussion on our letters blog today about the proposed Voter ID bill. Supporters of the measure simply can’t understand why anyone would see a problem with requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls. Joyce McCloy of the N.C. Coalition for Verified Voting didn’t weigh in there, but she…
A lot of statistics are being presented and there’s still a lot of confusion about how necessary the voter ID bill is and whether it would make voting difficult for some. But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from pushing the bill through. Wednesday afternoon the back and forth between right and left continued in committee.
Republican state lawmakers say they have removed the photo requirement from a bill that would make voters show ID in order to cast a ballot. The latest draft eliminates language that would require a photo ID. Instead, individuals would now be allowed to use a county-issued voter registration card or documents such as a utility bill…
Legislative staff has come up with a non-partisan fiscal note on voter identification. On the high end, it shows the cost to the state could be two-and-a-half million dollars. But critics say that’s way under what other states have reported and isn’t close to what the actual cost may be. The fiscal note offers a…