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N.C. House Republicans advanced an amended version of their sprawling elections bill Wednesday, toning down some of its most controversial provisions while still preserving the bulk of the legislation.
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The bill, House BIll 958, could go to a full floor vote in the House as early as Wednesday afternoon.
It’s unclear whether the Senate will take it up. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Senate leader Phil Berger said he would “withhold judgment” until the House passed its final version.
HB 958 passed through the House Rules Committee with all Democrats — and one Republican, Rep. Tricia Cotham — voting against it. While several Democrats said they appreciated the bill’s Republican sponsor, Rep. Hugh Blackwell, working with them to make changes, they still had too many concerns to support it.
“Elections should be normal, they should be predictable — people should know what to expect,” Rep. Amos Quick, a Guilford County Democrat, said. “This constant changing is just unnecessary.”
Early into the hearing, Rep. John Bell, the committee’s chair, ordered all attendees to be escorted out of the committee room after several people held up signs in opposition to the bill saying “hands off our vote.”
Blackwell said in the past weeks he had worked closely with Democratic Reps. Pricey Harrison and Phil Rubin to address their concerns with the legislation.
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“We may not have gotten to ‘yes’ votes with everybody, but hopefully they will be less enthusiastically ‘no,’” he said.
One of the bill’s original provisions that drew considerable backlash would have required the Republican State Auditor to conduct post-election audits in counties of his choice. Democrats worried this would empower him to single out counties where he or his preferred candidates lost.
The new version of HB 958 still requires the post-election audits, but it now says that counties should be selected randomly.
Republicans also toned down a section that originally banned election officials from encouraging voter turnout. The bill now says they may not encourage turnout “for a particular advocacy group, political party, or candidate.”
The bill’s sponsors also removed two sections that would have banned ranked-choice voting and paid signature gathering for political petitions.
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Some of the bill’s other provisions include: