A proposal to combine North Carolina’s elections, ethics and lobbyist regulation, among other provisions, was approved in the Senate on Thursday. Republican legislators who wrote Senate Bill 4 describe it as an effort to make elections oversight bipartisan. But the result would be to deprive the incoming Democratic administration of control of state and county elections boards. After Senate Republicans won a 30-16 vote along party lines, the bill was sent to the House. The Republican-led General Assembly called itself into special session on Wednesday and has been considering major changes to state government operations. SB 4 would replace the current State Board of Elections with the current eight-member State Ethics Commission. The new board would assume lobbying regulation duties from the Secretary of State. It would be run by the current director of the state elections office, Kim Strach, until a new board is seated in July and choses a director.
The current state Board of Elections has five members, three of whom are Republican. The Ethics Commission has seven members, four of whom are Republican.
The five members of the state Board of Elections are appointed by the governor from a list of nominees submitted by Republican and Democratic parties. No more than three can be from the same party, which gives the incumbent party an advantage. Three-member county boards are chosen by the state board with no more than two from the same party.
The bill would make the state board an eight-member board, with four appointments by the governor and four by the legislature. It would create four-member county boards also evenly divided between the two major parties.
Full Article: Proposal to split NC elections boards between political parties moves ahead.