Articles

The North Carolina Board of Elections should take inspiration from the Federal Elections Commission and create a system to track election finances, not just individual campaigns The North Carolina General Assembly should move to require all campaign committees to file digital reports The NCSBE should use the tools they have and require all campaigns to...

President Trump issued an executive order on March 25 to alter federal election policy. The motivation for the order is to preserve American citizens’ right to “free, fair, and honest elections:” Free, fair, and honest elections unmarred by fraud, errors, or suspicion are fundamental to maintaining our constitutional Republic. The right of American citizens to...

North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek appeared on Carolina Journal’s “The Debrief” on March 6. Early in the episode, Editor-in-Chief Donna King asked Boliek if he was open to having a team under him to audit elections. Here was his response: I spoke on the campaign trail about auditing the [North Carolina State] Board of...

In the 8 years I’ve worked on and analyzed North Carolina campaigns, I’ve seen how legislative candidates run their campaigns wildly differently. Campaigns can range from tooth-and-nail battles where candidates and volunteers knock on doors every week and have ads constantly running on every media you can afford to campaigns as simple as handing out...

Below is my prepared public comment on the State Board of Elections (SBE) proposed rule 08 NCAC 20.0103, “Identification of Observers.” I made the comment at an SBE hearing on March 6. The proposed rule changes for election observers are welcome clarifications and protections from arbitrary removals. There is one proposal that could use a...

Should election day be a holiday? Many North Carolina legislators think so. An election day holiday bill advances in the General Assembly House Bill 31, directly entitled “Make Election Day A State Holiday,” is advancing in the General Assembly. The bill’s primary sponsors are Brian Biggs (R-Randolph), Stephen M. Ross (R-Alamance), Neal Jackson (R-Moore, Randolph),...

Republicans and Democrats running for state legislature collectively raised roughly $80 million in the 2024 election Funding sources varied heavily not only for Democrats vs. Republicans but also based on the geography and competitiveness of the legislative district Competitive urban elections are becoming increasingly expensive When it comes to legislative elections, most people have some...

The North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) is proposing permanent rules on election observers and for election protests and recounts. Similar temporary rules were in effect for the 2024 election. Election Observer Rules The proposed rules on observers are based on General Statute 163‑45.1, which was passed as part of Senate Bill 747 in...

The North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) has announced that it is accepting applications from educational institutions and government agencies so their student and employee IDs can be used for voting purposes in 2025 and 2026. The board noted in the announcement that employer and college IDs are a large part of the plethora...

Procedural audits, sometimes called “forensic,” “compliance,” or “performance” audits, review if election laws and procedures were followed, including ballot chain-of-custody A procedural audit in Utah found that two counties there had violated state law and put election security at risk The North Carolina State Board of Elections, if not the state auditor, should include procedural...

It seems that we cannot have a session of the North Carolina General Assembly without a struggle over how many days of early voting North Carolina should have or which days the option should be available. The opening salvo in the 2025 legislative early voting fight addresses both questions. House Bill 66 would change the...

Stagnation of leadership leads to entrenchment of power and limitation of new ideas North Carolina recently gained notoriety for the longevity of its leadership positions, while other states are seeing many of their long-term leaders retiring North Carolina has granted traditionally executive powers to its legislature, and restricting these powers would be in line with...

The 2023-24 session of the North Carolina General Assembly delivered a host of policy victories for the John Locke Foundation, including changes to the law advocated for by Locke’s Civitas Center for Public Integrity. Those wins include the 2023 budget (which included several policy reforms for which Locke had advocated), numerous election law changes in...

While North Carolina is still dealing with the fallout from registration problems in the 2024 election, county election boards have started a process that will remove hundreds of thousands of registrations from voter rolls. That is a good thing. Regular List Maintenance Does Not Catch all Problematic Registrations Voters regularly become ineligible to vote because...

Citizens have a right to information, and better governance comes with more transparency The General Assembly is not as transparent as it could be and even became less transparent after passing a 2023 law limiting public records North Carolina should add a transparency amendment to the state constitution This is the third of a four-part...

In the days before Christmas, incoming Gov. Josh Stein & then Gov. Roy Cooper filed their second lawsuit, asking the courts to block appointment changes made to the State Board of Elections (SBE) under SB 382. The bill moves the appointment of the members of the  SBE and the chairs of the county boards of...

One of the last things the North Carolina General Assembly did in the 2024 “short session” was to pass House Joint Resolution 151. The resolution’s short title is “Term Limits For Congress.” What business is that of a state legislature? As every school child knows, the Supreme Court ruled in US Term Limits, Inc. v....

While there has been significant coverage of the election protests for the North Carolina Supreme Court election in both state and national news, the coverage has been chiefly topline and lacked a complete picture of the number of voters challenged in each protest. The lack of full context has created many misconceptions about the Griffin...

That’s the title of Bari Weiss’s recent interview with the new leader of Britain’s Conservative Party. Because I have lots of friends and relations in the UK, I follow British politics pretty closely, and I was very impressed by Kemi Badenoch’s maiden speech in the Commons in 2017. I’ve been expecting great things from her ever...

The first lawsuit on Senate Bill 382 was filed Thursday evening, just one day after the State House voted to override the Governor’s veto of the bill. This is unlikely to be the only lawsuit on the bill, with many expecting lawsuits to be filed on changes the bill made to the Board of Elections,...

The first lawsuit on Senate Bill 382 was filed Thursday evening, just one day after the State House voted to override the Governor’s veto of the bill. This is unlikely to be the only lawsuit on the bill, with many expecting lawsuits to be filed on changes the bill made to the Board of Elections,...

The first lawsuit on Senate Bill 382 was filed Thursday evening, just one day after the State House voted to override the Governor’s veto of the bill. This is unlikely to be the only lawsuit on the bill, with many expecting lawsuits to be filed on changes the bill made to the Board of Elections,...

The first lawsuit on Senate Bill 382 was filed Thursday evening, just one day after the State House voted to override the Governor’s veto of the bill. This is unlikely to be the only lawsuit on the bill, with many expecting lawsuits to be filed on changes the bill made to the Board of Elections,...

The first lawsuit on Senate Bill 382 was filed Thursday evening, just one day after the State House voted to override the Governor’s veto of the bill. This is unlikely to be the only lawsuit on the bill, with many expecting lawsuits to be filed on changes the bill made to the Board of Elections,...