Gov. Cooper says Senate Bill 749 “could doom our state’s elections to gridlock and severely limit early voting.”
Governor Roy Cooper has vetoed legislation which would change North Carolina’s elections process in a way that would give pro-polluter legislators absolute control over voting across the state, and slash the early voting opportunities that most NC citizens have come to use. Legislators are expected to attempt a veto override this month.
Although the title of the bill (SB 749, “No Partisan Advantage in Elections”) dishonestly implies that it’s taking party advantage out of the process, in reality it does nothing of the sort. Instead, it transfers appointment power over the state and county Boards of Elections into the hands of top legislative leaders, and sends unresolved election disputes into the hands of the pro-polluter current supermajority. Among other provisions, the bill guarantees that any time a local board cannot agree on an early voting plan (how many locations to open and where), then the chance to vote early falls back to a single early voting site with limited hours. Currently, early voting in most counties is open over two weeks at multiple voting sites in each county. A large majority of NC voters now take advantage of early voting.
In his veto message, Cooper was blunt about the dangers to democracy which would be created by this bill. “The legislative takeover of state and local elections boards could doom our state’s elections to gridlock and severely limit early voting,” said Cooper. “It also creates a grave risk that Republican legislators or courts would be empowered to change the results of an election if they don’t like the winner. That’s a serious threat to our democracy, particularly after the nation just saw a presidential candidate try to strongarm state officials into reversing his losing election result. Courts have already ruled the ideas in this bill unconstitutional, and voters overwhelmingly said no when the legislature tried to change the constitution.”
