Voting has started and campaigns are coming to a close.
I thought it would be an opportune time to remind you about some of the ways we have worked in the General Assembly during my past term to improve how we oversee elections and campaign finance. We also took some steps to improve disclosure about political candidates, following up on our efforts from last session to require economic disclosure.
Our efforts to make both registration and voting easier, coupled with the importance of this coming election, appear to be contributing to high early turnout.
If you have any questions about this information or anything else, please feel free to contact me. Thank you as always for this opportunity to share information with you about your state government.
Election Oversight
The General Assembly has established a new Joint Legislative Elections Oversight Committee to give greater attention to both election and campaign finance matters. The committee will have 18 members — 9 from each chamber appointed by the Senate President Pro Tempore and the Speaker of the House. The members will be appointed proportionally according to the partisan composition of their respective chambers and serve for two-year terms beginning on January 15 of odd-numbered years.
The committee will examine budgets, programs, and polices of the State Board of Elections and county boards of elections; election statutes and court decisions; election initiatives in other states, and other matters as necessary.
Voting and Campaign Reform
The law creating the oversight committee (S1263) was a large bill that also included several other provisions to improve elections in North Carolina.
Among the new provisions are:
The law also includes many other minor and technical changes.
It is now a felony to instruct or coerce non-citizens to vote. The law (H1743) also establishes misdemeanor penalties for breaching ballot secrecy or trying to convince a person to select a party affiliation. The bill also allows combined ballots and provides civil penalties for officials who are late reporting campaign contributions and expenditures. Penalties can be as high as three times the amount of funds concealed if the State Board of Elections finds that the officials deliberately concealed contributions or expenditures.
Same-Day Registration
We approved a new law (H91) that allows residents to register and vote right away at one-stop voting sites during the last 2 ½ weeks before an election. Under the old law voters could vote early at one-stop voting sites, but registration ended 25 days before an election. The bill is intended to open up the voting process by eliminating some time barriers and by making it easy for people who want to vote to do so quickly and conveniently.
Public Financing
North Carolina has had publicly financed judicial elections for the past several years, but this year for the first time it is using public financing in races for state auditor, superintendent of public instruction and insurance commissioner. The intention of the new law (H1517) is to open up elections to anyone with an interest in running and reduce the influence of increasingly large amounts of money being raised for campaigns. Candidates must raise a total of $30,000 from at least 750 people to qualify for the public financing program. They must then agree to strict fundraising and spending limits.
Candidate Disclosure
Candidates for public office must now report when they file for office whether they are convicted felons. The conviction will not have to be reported if it was reversed on appeal, pardoned or expunged. Candidates who have past convictions will be required to report the name of the offense, the date of conviction, the date their citizenship rights were restored, and the county and state of conviction. A prior felony conviction does not prevent a person from holding elective office if the candidate’s citizenship rights have been restored. Candidates who do not complete the statement will be barred from appearing on the ballot.
Public officials and state workers found guilty of felony misconduct related to their office must now forfeit their pensions. The bill (S659) applies to officials convicted of a federal or state offense involving election fraud or public corruption committed in their official capacity. It covers legislators, judges, state and local employees and teachers. The law is not retroactive and does not apply to officials already convicted of wrongdoing
Legislators who establish legal defense funds must now report donations to those accounts. Under the law (H1737), legislators with these accounts now have to report donations and expenses each quarter. In addition, they also have to abide by restrictions similar to those for campaign accounts. Donations from labor unions, insurance companies, corporations, business entities, or professional associations cannot exceed $4,000 each year. Cash donations must be less than $50 and the report must include detailed information about contributors.
Meetings/Events
I plan to attend the following meetings/events:
Please invite me to attend your county, city, community or civic, etc. meetings or events.
As I’ve said many times before, I hope you will continue to let me know how you feel about the issues that are being debated by the North Carolina Legislature and the challenges you and your family are facing each day.
By working together, we can make Northampton, Vance and Warren Counties and all regions of North Carolina a better place to live, work and raise a family.
Please remember that you can use the General Assembly’s website to look up bills, view lawmaker biographies and access other information. The site also contains detailed information about the state budget and legislative schedules.