Election Law Pot-Pourri

As I previously posted, Governor Perdue has vetoed the legislature's bill to require photo ID for voting.

That is by no means the only important election law issue.

In this session, there were about forty-one bills introduced, with the goal of extensively modifying North Carolina election law.

As an aside,your Pamlico County Board of Elections will enforce whatever changes become law. I have informed both Representative Sanderson and Senator Preston of my concerns about the effect of one of the proposed amendments, and had a useful discussion with Senator Preston's staff. The bill is not yet ratified, but has been ordered engrossed.

That being said, as I have previously noted, North Carolina election law as it presently exists is highly regarded in other states and at the US Department of Justice. I hope we retain that positive reputation.

Of the forty-one bills, Senate Bill 47 began life under the title "Restore Partisan Judicial Elections." The conservative Civitas Institute advocated partisan judicial elections because "including a party affiliation would give them some information about the candidates, and could lead to greater participation by the voters." As we will see, this logic wasn't necessarily applied to other election legislation.

Senate Bill 47 has now been retitled "An Act to Make Various Amendments to the Election Administration Laws, and Other Conforming Changes." In other words, it has become a legislative pot-pourri, incorporating measures from most of the forty-one bills concerning election law. As Churchill might have observed, "this bill has no theme." So we can only list the changes it makes.

Here they are:

1. Special elections can only be held on the same day as general and primary elections;

2. Establishes a term of office for chair of the State Board of Elections, with a two- term limit;

3. Repeals same day registration and voting (many first time voters used this in 2008);

4. Prohibits paying any person to assist or encourage voters to fill out registration forms, including payment per application completed;

5. Repeals right of a person who becomes eligible to vote after registration deadline but before election day to vote on election day - a provision that allows newly-naturalized citizens sworn in just before election to vote;

6. Repeals the mandated voter registration and preregistration drives at high schools and statewide registration drives; and even repeals the authorization for school boards to participate in such drives;

7. Introduces more stringent candidate treasurer requirements;

8. Makes candidates personally liable for civil penalties against campaigns;

9. Eliminates non-partisan judicial elections;

10. Removes requirement that provisional ballots not be marked to identify the voter;

11. Requires rotation of order of parties on ballots every four years (in apparent contradiction to requirement in same section that parties be in alphabetical order);

12. Eliminates straight party voting;

13. Provides elaborate details to insure "faithful presidential electors," limiting appointments to a single alternate for each elector (did not amend section 163-1 which requires first and second alternates);

14. Reduces period of one-stop early voting by one-third (two-thirds of Pamlico County voters voted during one-stop in 2008);

15. Repeals present requirement that only a near relative can request an absentee ballot for another person, and repeals provision for requester with handicap or illiteracy to receive assistance from an individual of requester's choice;

16. Permits compelling testimony from witness while subjecting witness to penalty and forfeiture for acts testified to;

17. Repeals instant runoff voting;

18. Repeals Voter Owned Election Act and associated funding of candidates;

19. Severely limits political contributions by State Vendors;

20. Under the guise of limiting allowed contributions to political parties, allows parties to receive contributions of up to $250,000 from any individual, political committee (other than a candidate committee), referendum committee, person or other entity in any election;

21. Applies balances in Voter Owned Election Fund to pay for voter ID equipment mandated by the Voter ID Act that Governor Perdue has already vetoed.

Those are the important ingredients in the pot-pourri.