VOTING
“A jumbo jet of a voter suppression bill.” NC Democrats denounce Republicans’ proposed voting restrictions.
Democrats in the North Carolina legislature are rebuking a new Senate bill that would make it harder for voters to cast mail-in ballots that would count toward candidate totals. Legislative Democrats don’t have enough votes to stop new laws if all Republican legislators vote together. They hope news of the potential voting restrictions will inspire […]
GOP-led states plan new voter data systems to replace one they rejected. Good luck with that.
So far this year, seven states, all Republican-led, have left the Electronic Registration Information Center, an interstate compact for sharing voter registration data, and more could follow. Amid the exodus, some states, including Texas and Virginia, have said they plan to create their own data-sharing networks to replace ERIC. Pledging to build a new system […]
Why Republican-led states keep leaving a group that verifies voter rolls
Eight Republican-led states this year left an interstate cooperative that seeks to maintain accurate voter registration rolls, and three more may join them — a move that election security experts say is fueled by conspiracy theories. Earlier this month, Virginia’s top election official said the state would become the latest to stop participating in the […]
NC Republicans prohibit the state joining an organization meant to keep voter rolls clean
State House and Senate Republicans agree that North Carolina will not join a multi-state effort to maintain accurate voter rolls. Both chambers included provisions in their budget proposals that prohibit the state from participating in the Electronic Registration Information Center and eliminate what was to be next year’s $35,000 membership fee. Republican states started abandoning […]
Federal agencies lag in registering voters despite Biden executive order, advocates say
Within weeks of taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order — hailed by voter advocates as potentially transformative — that for the first time committed the U.S. government to registering new voters at federal agencies. But just over two years later, most of the 10 agencies examined in a recent report […]
Red-state elections officials balk at voter registration outreach
A day after taking office in January, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen withdrew his state from the Electronic Registration Information Center, an interstate data-sharing compact aimed at helping states keep clean voter rolls. Asked about the move a few days later by a conservative radio host, Allen, a Republican, at first talked about privacy […]
Election deniers who lost secretary of state races now run several state GOP operations
Many of the election deniers who ran last year for positions that would have given them control over state elections systems lost their races. But several have found a new path to exert influence: as chair of their state Republican Party. On Saturday, Kristina Karamo, an activist who rose to prominence for her efforts to […]
National Dems give New Hampshire, Georgia more time to change 2024 primary dates
WASHINGTON — New Hampshire and Georgia will have a bit longer to implement key changes to when and how they hold Democratic presidential primaries, under an extension a Democratic National Committee panel approved Wednesday. Election officials will have until June 3 to move New Hampshire’s 2024 Democratic presidential primary to Feb. 13 and Georgia’s to […]
NC elections board will hold removal hearings for two Surry County elections officials who put their disdain for voting rules in writing
The state Board of Election will hold hearings to consider removing two Surry County elections board members who signed a letter disparaging state elections administration and a U.S. District Court judge. The state board voted unanimously hold a hearing on Surry Board secretary Jerry Forestieri. The state board split 3-2, with Republicans opposed, on conducting […]
Voting rights groups want two local elections board members who disparaged state election administration and a federal judge removed from their posts
Five voting rights groups are supporting a complaint against two members of the Surry County Board of Elections who said they do not like how election laws are administered. Surry Board secretary Jerry Forestieri and board member Timothy DeHaan presented a letter disparaging U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs at the November meeting where local […]
Veteran democracy advocate: Latest North Carolina voter stats reveal some worrisome trends
Overall numbers are up, but we know less about the state’s voters than before Before offering a profile of voter turnout in 2022 [check back in this space next week], it’s sobering to look at the changes in voter registration since the last mid-term election. As readers can see by clicking here, I’ve prepared a […]