Latest news with #StateBoardofElections
Toronto Star
an hour ago
- Politics
- Toronto Star
North Carolina Green Party retains official status despite failing vote thresholds
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Green Party will remain an official party in North Carolina, able to field candidates statewide through the 2028 elections, even though their 2024 nominees for governor and president failed to get the votes required by state law. The Republican-led State Board of Elections voted 3-2 on Thursday to continue recognizing the North Carolina Green Party, potentially affecting close contests for president, U.S. Senate and governor or other statewide and local offices.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Thousands of NC voters to see a change in their party affiliation
CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Some North Carolina voters might notice a surprise next time they check their voter registration: their party affiliation may have changed. On Tuesday, June 24, roughly 34,000 voters previously affiliated with the Constitution, Justice for All, No Labels, or We the People parties will be shifted to 'unaffiliated' status in the state's official voter database, according to the NC State Board of Elections. This change follows a decision by the State Board of Elections after these parties lost their official recognition under state law. To stay recognized, political parties in North Carolina must meet certain performance benchmarks, like securing at least 2% of the vote in a statewide race for president or governor. YOUR LOCAL ELECTION HQ: Controversial bills await action from Governor Stein In the 2024 general election, candidates from these four parties reportedly didn't meet that mark. The Green Party is the only exception. Despite falling short of the vote requirement, the party was reinstated after proving its presidential candidate appeared on the general election ballot in at least 70% of states, a separate qualification under state law, officials said. As of now, only four political parties are officially recognized in North Carolina: Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Green. All other voters are considered unaffiliated. For those unsure of their status, the State Board recommends checking online using the Voter Search Tool. Registration updates can also be made through the North Carolina DMV. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ousted NC elections director led through chaos. Her replacement promises change
Karen Brinson Bell's departure from her post as North Carolina's top election official was hardly unexpected. For nearly a decade, lawmakers had sought to restructure the state's election apparatus to strip appointment power away from the governor — an office which Democrats have won in the last three elections despite Republicans maintaining strong majorities in the General Assembly. After five attempts were foiled by courts or voters, the sixth proved successful. The state's appellate courts allowed a new law to take effect transferring appointment power over the State Board of Elections away from the governor and toward the newly elected Republican auditor. So when the board's new Republican majority voted last month to replace Brinson Bell with Sam Hayes, a lawyer who had worked for the state's top lawmakers, it didn't come as a surprise to her. 'You know when you're in an appointed position that it can always come to an end,' Brinson Bell told The News & Observer in an interview. 'So I tried to treat each day of the job just like you're supposed to treat your life: you never know if you'll get another day, so just do with it what you can while you can.' With Brinson Bell gone and the board's partisan majority flipped for the first time in nearly a decade, major changes are likely coming to the way the state runs its elections. Procedures surrounding voter registration and military and overseas voting are in question. So is the agency's independence. And all of this comes on the heels of a dramatic six-month legal battle over the results of the 2024 state Supreme Court election. Hayes has promised change for the oft-embattled agency, but says it will not come at the expense of voters. 'We will focus not only on access to voting for eligible voters, but also on election integrity and making sure that voters trust the system. These two goals are not mutually exclusive,' he said in an email to The N&O. 'We can have secure elections that are also accessible to any eligible voter who wants to cast a ballot.' Brinson Bell's unceremonious ousting last month — in which the board refused to allow her to give a farewell speech — was not the cap she had envisioned to her 19-year career in elections. 'I wanted to give recognition to an incredible group of people at the state agency and across the state who really pulled off some very remarkable, unprecedented things and give that recognition as it was due,' she said about that moment. 'I think not only did it disrespect me, it disrespected the state staff and all 100 counties.' The vote came shortly after the state's Republican-dominated Court of Appeals allowed Senate Bill 382 — a wide-ranging power shift bill — to take effect. The bill stripped the governor of his power to appoint a majority of members to the State Board of Elections — a practice which has been in place for over a century. Instead, that power was given to the state auditor, Dave Boliek, the first Republican to win the office in 16 years. A trial court had ruled that the law was unconstitutional, but the appeals court reversed that ruling in an unsigned order that did not include the reasoning for the judges' decision. Within a week of that order, the new board had taken office and voted to remove Brinson Bell as one of its first actions. It was a dramatic end to a tenure that had already been far from ordinary. During her six years as director of the State Board of Elections, Brinson Bell contended with COVID, Hurricane Helene and an unprecedented effort to overturn the results of a Supreme Court election. Each disruption to the normal election process brought increased scrutiny to the board and to Brinson Bell herself, who Republican lawmakers frequently lambasted on social media or in hearings at the legislature. While state lawmakers had voiced concerns with the board before, hostilities reached a tipping point in 2020, Brinson Bell said. As President Donald Trump spread false claims of voter fraud nationwide, North Carolina dealt with its own challenges to voting. Prior to the election, an advocacy group had sued the elections board over its mail-in voting rules, arguing that voters needed more opportunities to get their ballots in given the COVID-19 pandemic. The board (which at the time had three Democrats and two Republicans) unanimously agreed to a settlement with the group that allowed the state to accept mail-in ballots up to nine days after the election and gave voters more opportunities to fix issues with their ballots. To this day, state lawmakers refer to this as a 'collusive settlement' and list it as one of the primary reasons the board needed to be changed. 'It's unfortunate, because it's sowing distrust in the system that obviously, fairly and securely got them elected — and they didn't question their results,' Brinson Bell said. 'So why are we questioning the results of other contests that were carried out the exact same way?' Only four years after organizing voting in a pandemic, Brinson Bell had to organize voting in the wake of a deadly hurricane that ravaged Western North Carolina. The storm was personal for Brinson Bell, who lived in the area for 20 years. 'I knew the creeks and the hollers and the ridge lines that were being affected, and I knew a lot of the people being affected,' she said. Shortly after the storm hit, the board approved a variety of rule changes to make voting easier for mountain residents — all of which were later adopted by the legislature. Despite Helene, voters in Western North Carolina actually outpaced the rest of the state in turnout during early voting. The board's response to Helene won the agency a national Clearinghouse Award from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission — its fourth such award during Brinson Bell's tenure. But shortly after a national election in the wake of a massive hurricane, Brinson Bell had one more unexpected complication to deal with, one that would not be resolved until the very day the board voted to oust her. After all outstanding mail-in and provisional ballots from the 2024 election were counted, Republican Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin came in 734 votes behind Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs. The state proceeded to two recounts, which are standard procedure for a close election such as this one. But both affirmed the result. Rather than ending there, a novel and chaotic legal battle erupted. Griffin, alongside the NC GOP, challenged the validity of over 65,000 ballots cast in the election. Targeting a variety of longstanding voting and registration practices, Griffin sought to toss out tens of thousands of votes — potentially flipping the race in his favor. After six months of courtroom fights, Griffin conceded the race after a federal judge appointed by Trump decisively ruled against him. His concession came just as the election board's new Republican majority prepared to vote on replacing Brinson Bell. She alluded to the challenge in her farewell message, telling the attendees who stuck around after the board adjourned that she hoped election workers could be 'rewarded for their work, rather than vilified by those who don't like the outcome.' 'I hope we return to a time when those who lost elections concede defeat rather than trying to tear down the entire election system and erode voter confidence,' she continued. 'And I hope we recognize that the conduct of elections is the very core of our democracy.' Since taking over as director last month, Hayes has mostly worked behind the scenes. The new board has yet to meet since it voted to select him as director, and Hayes has not issued any press releases — other than the one announcing his hire. But changes are sure to come to the state's election processes under his leadership. While Griffin's effort to overturn his election loss is dead, the board is working to implement changes to the state's election policies based on the arguments he made. Griffin's main challenge argued that over 60,000 voters who didn't have a driver's license or Social Security number in the state's registration database should have their votes thrown out. Those identification numbers are required by a federal law called the Help America Vote Act, which includes exceptions for voters who do not possess either form of identification. The Trump administration sued over the issue late last month, asking a judge to order the state to fix the discrepancy within 30 days and cancel the registrations of any voter who does not provide the missing identifications. Hayes said he plans to work with the administration to address the problem. 'We don't need a lawsuit to tell us what's right,' he said. Voters with missing identification numbers will receive a mailing from the board informing them of how to fix it, Hayes said. If they don't respond, they will be contacted by phone and email. Instead of outright canceling the registrations of voters who don't answer at that point, Hayes said the voters would be flagged in the system to provide the missing information the next time they show up to vote. While Brinson Bell agreed that earlier registration practices were unclear pertaining to the HAVA numbers, she said Griffin's challenge of the election results was unnecessary and damaged trust in elections. 'It conveys such inaccurate information (and) a lack of understanding,' she said about the challenges. 'Just by filing it, you're sowing those seeds of distrust.' But Hayes shifted blame to the former board. 'I think failing to collect the information required by HAVA undermined trust in the 2024 election results,' he said. Collecting that information won't be the only change under Hayes. Despite being exempt from the state's voter ID law in the past, military and overseas voters will have to provide identification in future elections to have their votes counted in state and local races. This was another issue Griffin had sued over, though he only challenged voters registered in Democratic-leaning counties for this part of his complaint. While his effort to have those ballots canceled was unsuccessful, courts agreed with him that these voters should be subject to the ID requirement going forward. Changes could also come from the state legislature through the budget process. The House's budget proposal would add seven new employees to the State Board of Elections who would be exempt from the State Human Resources Act — essentially making them political appointees. Brinson Bell said this move could chip away at the agency's independence. 'You're losing the established public servant who works for the state, who works for the voters,' she said. ' And now inserting someone or individuals who — that's not who they answer to — they answer to that person who appoints them.' Hayes confirmed that he requested this change be added to the House budget, saying it would give him staffing flexibility. It isn't the only staffing change he's made. Shortly after taking office, Hayes hired Brian LiVecchi as his chief of staff — a position that had not previously existed in the agency. LiVecchi previously served as chief of staff to former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. He resigned in the midst of Robinson's gubernatorial campaign after bombshell reporting from CNN tied Robinson to a series of sexually explicit and disturbing online comments. Hayes said that most other agencies have a chief of staff and that he chose LiVecchi because he has a 'wealth of experience in election law and administration that will be of great benefit to the agency.' Amid this change, an audit is likely coming. Hayes said he asked Boliek — who appointed the board's members — to conduct a performance audit of the agency. 'It will help us determine where we need to spend energy and resources in the future to ensure we are efficiently fulfilling the many duties and responsibilities of this agency and providing the best possible service to voters, candidates, and the 100 county boards of elections,' Hayes said. As for Brinson Bell, she plans to continue working on elections — though she isn't sure exactly how, yet. Her husband calls her 'the busiest unemployed person he's ever met,' she said, as she continues to connect with election directors across the country and share advice on best practices. To her successor, Brinson Bell also has one piece of advice as he assumes the role of elections director for one of the country's most consequential swing states. 'He should never forget that he is now the caretaker of democracy,' she said. 'And that's a pretty big charge.'
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Department of Justice suing North Carolina for ‘inaccurate voter list'
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — The State of North Carolina and its State Board of Elections are on the receiving end of a lawsuit claiming the state has failed to 'maintain an accurate voter list' in accordance with federal law. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had filed the lawsuit, which claims the state has directly violated the mandate laid out in the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The violation points to a registration form that the DOJ claims 'did not require a voter to provide identifying information such as a driver's license or last four digits of a social security number.' Once the forms were completed, voters were added to the state voter registration roll and some remain on it without the required information, the federal agency said. 'Accurate voter registration rolls are critical to ensure that elections in North Carolina are conducted fairly, accurately, and without fraud,' said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. 'The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file suit against jurisdictions that maintain inaccurate voter registration rolls in violation of federal voting laws.' The USDOJ also referenced Executive Order 14248 signed by President Donald Trump on March 25 which was titled 'Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.' The DOJ says that order is about guarding against illegal voting, unlawful discrimination, and other forms of fraud, error, or suspicion. CBS 17 reached out for a response from the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Its executive director, Sam Hayes provided the following statement on the lawsuit: 'I was only recently notified of this action by the United States Department of Justice. We are still reviewing the complaint, but the failure to collect the information required by HAVA has been well documented. Rest assured that I am committed to bringing North Carolina into compliance with federal law.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Justice Department files lawsuit against North Carolina Board of Elections for alleged inaccurate voter list
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against North Carolina and the State Board of Elections for allegedly failing to maintain an accurate voter list. The lawsuit alleges that the state violated the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) by using a State voter registration form that did not require a voter to provide identifying information such as a driver's license or the last four digits of a social security number. The lawsuit adds that voters remain on the registration roll without the required information. On March 25, President Trump signed an executive order entitled Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections, in order to ensure that elections are held in compliance with federal laws. This issue surfaced during the months-long fight over a North Carolina State Supreme Court seat, ultimately won by Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs. 'Accurate voter registration rolls are critical to ensure that elections in North Carolina are conducted fairly, accurately, and without fraud,' said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. 'The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file suit against jurisdictions that maintain inaccurate voter registration rolls in violation of federal voting laws.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
