Articles
North Carolina Needs to Reform Duplicate Voter Registrations Removal Process
A North Carolina group says they have found numerous duplicate voter registrations, but election officials have not acted on their findingsA pair of federal lawsuits set parameters for how and when citizens can challenge voter registrationsThe General Assembly should streamline the process for challenging duplicate registrations The North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) says...
Judge’s Unverified Voter Registration Injunction Is a Fixable Problem
The North Carolina General Assembly addressed a “ghost voter” problem, which involves verification of same-day registrations before associated ballots are countedA U.S. District Court upheld the verification process but enjoined its enforcement until election officials initiate a notification procedure for the affected registrationsThe State Board of Elections can implement a notification process that lifts the injunction,...
Brunswick and Forsyth Election Boards Withdraw from “Zuck Bucks 2.0”
Almost exactly a year ago, I noted how a left-wing organization called the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) influenced election administration in North Carolina and nationwide through funds provided by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg (AKA: “Zuck Bucks”). I also noted how CTCL was behind a new attempt to influence election administration underway in the...
Public Comment: Proposed Voter ID Rules Are at Odds with State Law
Below is my public comment on the North Carolina State Board of Elections’ proposed voter ID rules. A link to the proposed rules is below the comment. You can submit your comment on the rules through that link through January 16. I am writing in regard to 08 NCAC 17 .0101, Verification of Photo Identification...
Two Years of Changes in North Carolina Voter Registrations
With a new year upon us, let’s see how voter registrations have changed over the past two years. Why look at changes over two years instead of one? The North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) conducts biennial list maintenance at the start of each odd-numbered year, removing hundreds of thousands of registrations that have...
Who’s filed for the 2024 Election?
Filing for the 2024 election has officially closed as of noon on December 15th. With it, we know which legislative seats will be contested and who is running for what seats. The full breakdown of candidate filings for the North Carolina Legislature and Congress can be found here. North Carolina Congressional Races Democrats have filed...
Elections Board To Make Squishy Voter ID Law Even Squishier
The North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) held a public hearing on proposed voter ID rules on December 13. The proposed rules are for in-person (08 NCAC 17 .0101) and mail (08 NCAC 17 .0109) voter ID. A review of those regulations reveals that they provide exceptions that are so easily exploitable that they...
Redistricting Lawsuit Arrives a Day Late and a Dollar Short
As expected, the Elias Law Group has filed a lawsuit (Williams v. Hall) challenging some of North Carolina’s new congressional districts. As if they realized how unlikely they were to succeed in their attempt to stop elections under this map, they waited until the day candidate filing had started to file their complaint The Challenged...
Plaintiffs Request Gingles All the Way in Senate Redistricting Case
A legal challenge to the state Senate maps was filed just before the Thanksgiving holiday last week, questioning the state’s compliance with the Voting Rights Act. With candidate filing set to begin Dec. 4, the plaintiffs requested the court to expedite a preliminary injunction. Federal court judge James Dever denied the motion to expedite the...
Elections Board Agrees to Partially Follow Law on Registration IDs
Election officials have been deviating from state and federal voter registration laws for two decades. A citizen complaint forced the North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) to start complying, but more action is needed to fix the damage caused by that deviation. Federal and State Law Requires ID Numbers for Voter Registration The Help...
Shrinking Violets: Where Are the Redistricting Lawsuits?
Redistricting lawsuits are common in North Carolina. The General Assembly’s redistricting page is littered with maps that courts have tossed out (click on “District Plans Enacted or Ordered by the Court”). Only One Redistricting Lawsuit so Far However, unlike in the recent past, there has been no rush of lawsuits against the new maps. Only...
Appeals Court Disallows Private Action under the Voting Rights Act
Appeals Court Prohibits Private Action under the Voting Rights Act In a case with potentially enormous ramifications for North Carolina elections, the United States 8th District Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that individuals cannot sue under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). That is the most common section used in...
Now That We’re Done with Redistricting, Let’s Talk About Redistricting Reform
With the next scheduled round of redistricting eight years away, now is the best time to talk about redistricting reformFollowing traditional redistricting criteria more strictly and making the “Stephenson process” a permanent part of the state constitution can limit gerrymanderingAnother tool to limit gerrymandering is banning the use of political and racial data and not...
North Carolina’s Congressional Maps Should Avoid Splitting Our Largest Cities
What should we value more when it comes to map drawing: that a district be drawn to represent a community of interest or which party may have an advantage in that district? Philosophically speaking, a district should be drawn to give a geographic community a voice in their government. However, the process of map drawing...
Policy Pizza: Election Security and Data
This week on Policy Pizza, we linked up with Jim Stirling, a Research Fellow at Locke’s Civitas Center for Public Integrity. Jim’s primary focus for the Center for Public Integrity is researching election integrity, analysis of election data, and good governance practices on the state and local levels. Over some beers and pineapple pizza, Jim...
When It Comes To Redistricting, What Does “Fair” Actually Mean?
Some things are perennially certain in life. My son’s desire to stay up past his bedtime, the beauty of the Blue Ridge Parkway during autumn, and North Carolina’s protracted redistricting saga. In October 2023, the state legislature approved new congressional and legislative maps. It was to the surprise of no one that Democratic politicians and...
Stephenson Ruling Does not Require Racially Polarized Voting Analysis
Legislators disagreed during North Carolina’s recent round of redistricting on whether the General Assembly had to conduct a racially polarized voting analysis. This raises at least two questions. The first is “What is racially polarized voting (RPV) analysis?” At its most basic RPV analysis attempts to determine if White and nonwhite voters both vote as...
What are the Partisan leanings of North Carolina’s Proposed Legislative Maps?
October 26 Update: The General Assembly ratified amended versions of Senate Bill 758 and House Bill 898 on October 25. The changes are mostly minor and do not change the overall partisan ratings of either map previously listed in this post. The updates to the Senate map include swapping precincts between districts 20 and 22...
Two Problematic State Senate Districts and One That Is Not As Bad as It Looks
We noted on October 20 how the proposed North Carolina Senate map tended to favor Republicans. We also noted how closely they adhered to or failed to adhere to traditional redistricting criteria: The CPI indicates that there are 16 safe Democratic seats, 1 likely Democratic seat, 5 toss-up seats, 5 lean Republican seats, 4 likely...
Proposed Congressional Maps Look Ugly But Are Good on Many Redistricting Criteria
The two congressional maps proposed in the Senate Redistricting and Elections Committee are not pretty. What the maps do with the 13th District is perhaps the most extreme example. On one map (CBP-5) it runs from northern Wake County all the way down to the beaches of Carteret County. On the other map (CCJ-1) the...
Misconceptions about Redistricting: What Are the Stephenson Criteria?
The North Carolina General Assembly is expected to have its new legislative and congressional maps ready this week. The 2022 interim congressional map was always expected to be redrawn this year, as the court-drawn maps are only to be used for one election cycle. The redrawing of legislative maps only came about after the decision...
Empowering Oversight: Perspective on Oversight Commission’s New Powers
The North Carolina state budget, recently enacted, expanded the powers of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, a body that has been in existence since 1975.Expanding the Commission’s authority aligns with principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and transparency in government.The use of extreme comparisons like “secret police” and “Gestapo” to describe the Commission’s...
SCOTUS Cases May Establish Brackets for Race and Redistricting Claims
A case out of South Carolina could help set limits on claims of racial gerrymandering, further clarifying how such claims may affect districts the North Carolina General Assembly will draw later this month. Alabama Case’s Limited Impact I noted in June how a racial gerrymandering case from Alabama, Allen v. Milligan, would likely have little...
Veto Override Delivers a Host of Locke Election Policy Victories
The General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 747, “An Act to Make Various Changes Regarding Election Law,” on October 10. The party-line votes were 30-19 in the Senate and 72-44 in the House. The John Locke Foundation has advocated for many of the election reforms in S 747. Once implemented, they...
