absentee ballots
NC House committee approves absentee ballot restrictions
A bill that would make it harder for voters to return absentee ballots in time to have them counted passed a state House committee along party lines Tuesday. The bill would eliminate the three-day grace period for absentee ballots mailed to local boards of elections. Under the current law, those ballots count as long as […]
State elections board rejects NC GOP signature matching request for absentee ballots
The NC Board of Elections, in a 3-2 party line vote, rejected state Republicans’ request for signature verification on absentee ballots. Republicans wanted local elections officials to be able to compare voters’ signatures on their registration cards against signatures on requests for absentee ballots and on the returned ballots.
The virus that threatens our democracy
The coronavirus – now rekindled in a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” – is forcing us yet again to adjust our daily routines and recalibrate our expectations of normalcy. Even people who got their shots early and thought they were in the clear are finding they need to keep their masks handy.
Voting rights group report says cure process saved 20,000 votes last year, calls for permanent rule
North Carolina’s process of curing mail-in ballots protected nearly 20,000 from being discounted in the 2020 general election, according to a report released by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice on Thursday. The cure process allowed voters to fix their ballots that failed to meet certain statutory requirements or vote another way. Communities of color whose absentee […]
GOP legislators want to give their leaders veto power over lawsuit settlements
Republican legislators want the state Attorney General to get approval from legislative leaders before finalizing some lawsuit settlements. A spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s office said the bills are unconstitutional. A Senate committee on Thursday approved Senate bill 360, Prohibit Collusive Settlements by the AG. The Attorney General would be required to get consent from […]
Republicans aim to shorten absentee ballot deadlines, end private donations for elections
Legislators started their discussion of an elections bill that would prevent counting of mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. Republicans are angry about the lawsuit settlement last fall that allowed mail-in absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day, Nov. 3, to be counted as long as they arrived by Nov. 12. Current law allows ballots […]
Special report: The GOP’s national effort to make voting more difficult
As strategy shifts from election lawsuits to laws, voting rights advocates warn of Tennessee As Republican-led legislatures continue a systematic push to pass laws they say are aimed at ratcheting up election security, voting rights advocates in Tennessee worry the entire nation could soon look a lot like the Volunteer State where voter turnout and voter registration figures are among the lowest in the country.
Senate committee rehashes 2020 battles over election rules – here’s what happened and what they were debating
Republicans on the Senate Redistricting and Elections Committee questioned the legitimacy of rule changes enacted last year by the State Board of Elections in a contentious two-hour hearing Tuesday with the board's executive director Karen Brinson Bell. Sen. Paul Newton, a Cabarrus County Republican co-chairing the committee, described the board's settlement with voting rights groups, which resulted in a modified process of voting, as "secretly negotiated" and motivated by partisan advantage.
Nonprofit group asks federal judge to order search for ballots in NC Postal Service facilities
Lawyers for a nonprofit suing the Postal Service have asked a federal judge in Washington, DC to order postal facilities, including two in North Carolina, to look for absentee ballots that haven’t been delivered to local elections boards. In an exhibit filed Wednesday, lawyers for the group Vote Forward listed thousands of ballots that were […]
Keep calm and count every vote
President Donald Trump may have defied the odds and the pollsters and pulled off another stunning Electoral College squeaker in the 2020 election, but here’s the deal: at this point no one knows for sure and the only way to do so is to patiently count every vote. At this moment, Trump is leading in […]
Supreme Court rejects final GOP effort to limit count of absentee ballots in NC
In case you missed it, the U.S. Supreme Court put what appears to be the final nail in the coffin of Republican efforts to reverse a court decision that will allow absentee ballots in North Carolina to be counted if they are received by Nov. 12 — provided they’re postmarked by Election Day. This from […]
Breaking: U.S. Supreme Court rejects GOP appeal of absentee ballot extension
In a victory for voting rights groups and the state State Board of Elections and a defeat Republican legislative leaders, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled tonight that a court settlement that allowed the state to continue to receive absentee ballots until Nov. 12 will stand. The high court’s ruling, which came in the case of […]