North Carolina elections bill requires voter purges, audits

PAUL WILLIAMS III | THE CHARLOTTE POST

A bill passed by North Carolina lawmakers expands the authority of State Auditor Dave Boliek to audit elections and use federal data to purge the early or absentee ballots of people who die before Election Day.

A bill passed by North Carolina lawmakers Tuesday rewrites voting laws that will increase voter purges and automatic audits of election results.

House Bill 958 mandates audits of local elections in all 100 counties and use of government records to disqualify early or absentee votes of people who die before Election Day. State Auditor Dave Boliek, who the Republican supermajority authorized to supervise the State Board of Elections upon his election in 2024, has faced criticism for appointing political allies to the panel instead of elections professionals. Republican county board chairs – who are appointed by Boliek – have also alleged undue influence to change early voting periods and polling sites to make the process more difficult for students and communities of color that tend to vote for Democrats.

“You cannot audit yourself," Sen. Val Applewhite (D-Cumberland) said in a statement. "This bill lets the very politician who appoints the people who run our elections to then turn around and audit the boards he himself staffed. That is not even close to appropriate oversight. That is a grown man grading his own homework and then asking all of us to trust the grade he gave himself.”

HB 958 directs use of federal and state databases to identify dead or ineligible individuals on voter rolls and cuts early voting for primaries from 17 days to 10. The bill also raises state independent political donation disclosure rules, expanding the threshold from $100 to $1,000.

Senate Democrats offered several amendments, including three by Mujtaba Mohammed, who represents a district in Mecklenburg County: restore early voting in primaries to 17 days; confirm the death of voters before removing them from the rolls and require nonpartisan staff to conduct audits. All were rejected by the Republican supermajority.

“House Bill 958 protects the power of those already in charge instead of protecting the power of North Carolina voters,” said Sen. Caleb Theodros, a Charlotte Democrat. “This bill cuts primary early voting from 17 days to 10, eliminating a full week for people to cast their ballots. On Charlotte’s west side, many residents work irregular shifts, rely on public transportation, or balance multiple jobs and childcare. For them, early voting is not simply a convenience. It is what makes voting possible.

“The bill also creates a voter-purge process based on federal data known to contain errors. A database flag is not proof that someone is ineligible to vote, and a clerical mistake should not cost an eligible citizen their registration.

Said Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch of Wake County, who introduced an amendment to make drawing political districts an independent process: “This bill was never about election security. It is about job security for Republicans. We handed them five different ways to give these elections back to the voters, and they killed every single one. That tells you everything you need to know. The only thing this bill protects is the people already sitting in these seats, and trust me, no voter in North Carolina asked for this legislature to get a free pass in November.”

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