Big changes are coming to NC election law in 2025. Here’s what to expect
Following a contentious vote by North Carolina’s Republican supermajority to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 382, major changes are coming to the way the state runs its elections — and who is in charge of them.
State and local election boards, which have held a 3-2 Democratic majority for eight years, will flip to Republican control this spring after lawmakers stripped the authority to make appointments from incoming Gov. Josh Stein.
SB 382 also significantly shortens the time voters have to fix issues with their provisional ballots and gives election workers less time to count them.
Some of those changes have already been challenged in court, but as of now, they will all be in effect for upcoming elections. Here’s what to expect.
Republicans take control of election boards
State law has long held that the governor has appointment authority over the State Board of Elections and county boards of elections. That authority allows members of the governor’s party to hold a majority on these boards, meaning Democrats have controlled them since Cooper was elected in 2016.
SB 382, however, gives that appointment power to the state auditor — a position that had been held by Democrats for 16 years until Republican Dave Boliek won the race this year.
Boliek’s appointments would flip control of the boards, giving Republicans a 3-2 majority.
The bill says that the terms of the current members will expire on April 30, allowing Boliek’s replacements to begin in May.
Some high-profile decisions made by the State Board of Elections have split along party lines in recent history, including the decision to dismiss election protests filed by Republican Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin, who challenged the validity of over 60,000 votes in his race.
Republicans in the General Assembly have tried several times to wrest control of election boards from Democrats, but all of their efforts have so far been rejected by courts or voters.
Last year, lawmakers passed a bill that would have put an even number of Republicans and Democrats on election boards and given all appointments to legislative leaders. A panel of judges blocked that law, finding that it unconstitutionally took the governor’s power.
Republicans put similar election board changes forward as a constitutional amendment in 2018, but over 61% of voters rejected it.
Less time to fix, count ballots
In addition to changing the composition of election boards, SB 382 also makes significant changes to the timeline for counting votes.
When voters cast provisional ballots, which are used when there are questions about a voter’s eligibility, they typically have nine days after an election to fix any issues with their ballot, a process known as “curing.”
SB 382 eliminates six days from the cure period, giving voters three days after an election to fix their ballot.
Once cured ballots and other categories of votes were added to the tally in the Supreme Court race, the Democratic incumbent, Allison Riggs, jumped ahead of her Republican challenger, even though she had trailed him on Election Night.
Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters earlier this month that there should be a process in place “where the public knows the results of the election as soon as possible, preferably on the night of the election.”
SB 382 also requires that all counties finish counting provisional ballots by 5 p.m. on the third day after an election. That process took nearly two weeks this year.
In a statement last month, Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the State Board of Elections, said the bill “makes substantial administrative changes that may make it impossible for the county boards of elections to adequately ensure every eligible ballot cast is counted, especially in high turnout elections.”
SB 382 did not provide any additional funding for election workers to account for the significant deadline changes, though Berger said the legislature will consider additional funding during the budget process next year.
Lawsuit could block changes
Stein and Cooper quickly went to court to challenge the elections board overhaul in SB 382, amending the earlier lawsuit that blocked last year’s changes.
In that earlier case, Democrats successfully argued in court that giving lawmakers the power to appoint members of election boards was a violation of the state constitution’s separation of powers clause.
That’s among the arguments Democrats are making this time, too.
“This blatantly partisan restructuring of the state board is — once again — unconstitutional,” the lawsuit argues. “It will undermine confidence in elections, and it contravenes the democratic principles on which our state government rests.”
But Democrats may face more obstacles making their case this time than they have in previous battles.
For one thing, because SB 382 gives the appointment authority to a member of the Council of State, Republicans may argue that it satisfies the separation of powers requirement by keeping the authority within the executive branch — even if it’s not given to the governor.
The new case could work its way up to the state Supreme Court, which now has a 5 to 2 Republican majority.
This story was originally published December 27, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
