NC GOP leaders aren’t worried about voter fraud. They’re worried about a true vote.

In this time of political tension, a little comic relief is welcome.

So thank you, Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore. Your response to a proposed legal settlement agreed to by the State Board of Elections that will make it easier and safer to vote during a pandemic was hysterical.

The settlement in a lawsuit brought by the North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans was announced Tuesday. It extends the acceptance deadline for absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day. It also allows voters who fail to have a witness sign their ballot to fix the error by signing an affidavit attesting that the ballot is indeed their own.

These are commonsense changes given the Postal Service’s delays in delivering mail, the risk of meeting with a witness during a pandemic and the unfamiliarity with the rules on the part of many people who will be voting absentee for the first time. Other states have extended their deadlines for absentee ballots and changed their witness requirement for this pandemic election.

All five members of the State Board of Elections – including its two Republicans – agreed to the settlement, which must be approved by Wake Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins.

On Wednesday, the two Republicans, Ken Raymond and David Black, abruptly resigned. Raymond said state lawyers did not fully inform him of the settlement’s effects and Black said he misunderstood how the changes would affect absentee ballots. The State Board of Elections should clear up the matter, perhaps by disclosing more of what was said at a closed board session when the settlement agreement was discussed.

Berger and Moore responded to the settlement with contrived outrage that echoes President Trump’s disgraceful effort to undermine faith in the 2020 election results. The Senate leader accused Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein of colluding with Democratic lawyers representing the plaintiffs. He said they were trying “to undo” election law changes made after absentee ballots were illegally collected in the Ninth Congressional District.

In a gross overstatement, Berger said, “I cannot overstate how unethical this collusive behavior is.” Not to be outdone, Moore called the proposed settlement “utterly lawless.”

The funniest line was Berger fuming that the one-time tweaks in response to the pandemic would constitute “a full-frontal assault on election integrity laws.” This from a leader who has pushed through election laws that courts have found to be unconstitutional efforts to suppress votes or alter outcomes through extreme gerrymandering.

Sensible changes

The Republican leaders don’t fear voter fraud. They fear voters. A closer look at the settlement shows the State Board of Elections made a prudent decision to settle the legal challenge to help absentee voters and head off confusion as Election Day nears.

Allowing a voter to fix a missing witness signature by signing an affidavit simply extends a remedy that state law already provides for voters who fail to sign their absentee ballot.

The extension of the date when an absentee ballot – postmarked on or before Election Day –responds to a warning from the Postal Service that ballots mailed less than a week before the Nov. 3 election will face “a significant risk” of not being delivered by Nov. 6, the deadline for being counted. The settlement would move the deadline to Nov. 12, a nine-day window already provided under state law for absentee ballots mailed by residents living abroad or in the military.

Many North Carolinians are planning to avoid the polls and vote by mail. The settlement’s one-time changes will accommodate voters’ worry and enable more people to have their vote counted. That’s what Berger and Moore are really howling about.

This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 2:05 PM.