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?”
Jones said cutting back on the number of early voting days would help save money for local boards of elections and help candidates who’ve had to change their campaign strategy by sending mailers and purchasing ads weeks before election day.
Opponents, however, said it was misguided and would inconvenience voters at best, and would suppress voter turnout at worst. Currently, early voting starts on the Thursday that is 2½ weeks before an election. Jones’ bill would have early voting starting on the Thursday that is one and one-half weeks before an election.
Full Article: Bill would shorten early voting timeframe | timeframe, voting, bill – Sun Journal.