Raleigh, North Carolina (Associated Press)-As the legislative year draws to a close, North Carolina Republicans proposed a series of measures on Wednesday. Voting rights groups worry that these measures will prevent legitimate votes from being counted and hinder them. Participate in the 2022 general election.
Republicans passing the House Rules Committee’s bills are unlikely to become law because they will almost certainly lack the support of Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and enough Democratic state legislators to overturn possible vetoes.
The measures that Republicans are taking include a plan to prevent the counting of absentee ballots that arrive at county election offices after voting on election day.
Senator Warren Daniel, a Republican of Burke County and the initiator of the bill, said the state will provide extra time to collect votes in 2020 as part of its efforts to make mailed votes more accessible during the pandemic, unnecessarily prolonging The vote count process and the interests of the voters’ interests were damaged’ confidence in the result, because then President Donald Trump was declared the winner of North Carolina only a few days after the election, but lost to the Democrat Joe in the country as a whole. Biden.
"Everyone knows when Election Day is. All the votes are in place and the counting begins," Daniel said. "Every day after that, there may be distrust in the process. Ideally, we want a winner on election night."
In 2020, due to the pandemic and delays in the U.S. postal service, the state extended the grace period for mailing ballots to 9 days. Existing state law allows ballot envelopes postmarked on election day received within three days of election day to be counted. In the first three days after 2020, more than 11,600 votes were received-Republicans expect this number to fall in the midterm election year. Daniel said he believes his bill will not determine the election results.
Caroline Fry, the interim advocacy director of Democracy NC, a well-known voting rights organization, told lawmakers that she considered the bill to be the latest effort to "make voters, especially black voters, a national strategy to keep silent."
The Democrats did not like the plan and the committee’s proposal to allow state election officials to collect citizen data through the jury selection process of the court system and prohibit private funds from being used to support election operations.
"We must unite, but this is not the solution to the problem," said Democratic Rep. Billy Richardson of Cumberland County. "I hope we don't pass this, I hope we don't pass the rest of the bill. I just hope we can get together, but it doesn't help."
If potential jurors say they are not residents of the United States and cannot participate in the election, Republicans again seek to require the court to share citizenship data with state election officials. This move continues the efforts that failed when Cooper vetoed the plan in 2019. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina believes that the measure will cause privacy issues and may encourage anti-immigration police.
In addition, lawmakers are seeking to pass a bill to prevent private funds from flowing into state and county election commissions. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $400 million to enable county election offices across the country to hire more voting staff, buy Equipment to handle mailed ballots and purchase personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
But these grants aroused the anger of American conservative lawmakers who questioned the motives of wealthy and liberal individuals, prompting several Republican-controlled states to issue bans on such donations.
"When a party group sends private funds to counties specifically responsible for elections, it will erode people's confidence in the outcome," said Cabarus Senator Paul Newton.
Senate Republicans voted on a partisan line in June to approve measures to restrict mail counts and prohibit private funds to fund election activities. These proposals now enter the House of Representatives, and the House bill requires the court to share citizenship information with the North Carolina State Electoral Commission.
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Anderson is a member of the Associated Press/US State Assembly News Initiative Report team. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that allows reporters to report on secret issues in local newsrooms.