NC Republicans are more focused on blocking votes than winning them

Republicans are throwing sand into the gears of a voting process already strained by the coronavirus pandemic.

In Florida, Republicans thwarted a change approved by voters to let ex-felons vote. In Wisconsin, they successfully reversed an extension of the deadline for counting absentee ballots because of a slowdown in mail deliveries. In Alabama and South Carolina, they managed to get the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse lower court decisions that suspended witness requirements for absentee voting because of the pandemic.

Here in North Carolina, an all but must-win state for President Trump, the state’s top Republican lawmakers are doing all they can to have more absentee ballots rejected. It’s no wonder why. Requests for absentee ballots have soared to 1.1 million – a 1,000 percent increase over 2016 – as North Carolina voters seek protection from the risk of infection at polling places. Requests from Democrats are more than twice those from Republicans.

Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger and Republican House Speaker Tim Moore are trying to reverse adjustments in absentee voting made in light of the pandemic. They’re claiming that North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, engaged in a nefarious plan to end the absentee ballot witness requirement, presumably so that Democrats could benefit from election fraud.

Stein wasn’t directly involved, but lawyers from his office did propose settling a lawsuit that challenged having a witness requirement during a pandemic. The settlement said that ballots that are not properly signed by a witness or lack any witness information could be “cured” by having the voter sign an affidavit attesting that the ballot is their own. The State Board of Elections’ five members, including two Republicans, agreed. the settlement required the approval of a superior court judge, which it received.

That commonsense adjustment triggered protests by Berger and Moore, who claim the state lawyers duped the Republican board members so they could make an end run around the witness requirement. But minutes of the board’s closed session deliberations reveal all the board members were fully informed. And rather than circumventing the witness requirement, adding the affidavit requirement tightens the oversight. Essentially, it makes the local Board of Elections the witness to the ballot. If a voter lies on the affidavit, he or she would face a felony charge.

Now the settlement’s changes, which include changes in absentee ballot signature rules and an extension of the absentee ballot deadline, are awaiting decisions from federal and state appeals courts. Meanwhile, state officials say 10,000 ballots received by mail have problems, but local elections boards can’t contact voters to correct them until the courts clarify what rules are in effect. That should happen early this week.

Berger and Moore are objecting to a one-time change that addresses a virtually nonexistent problem. Most states don’t have an absentee ballot witness requirement and only six require one for this election. The howls from the legislative leaders are contributing to a national Republican effort – starting with President Trump – to deny some voters a say and undermine public confidence in the results of the election.

Stein called it what it is in a tweet: “That’s disgraceful & un-American. They should care more about helping people stay safe, healthy, & have their vote count than trying to maintain power.”

So far, the Republicans have succeeded in creating confusion and delays, but judging by the surge in early voting, the voice of the voters will be too loud to stifle.

This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 12:00 AM.