When I was looking or information for this post about the GOP power grab in North Carolina this week— there’s a real paucity of it nationally— I looked on Google news by entering “North Carolina” and the first stories that popped up were all about Bill Belichick reaching a deal to coach the Tar Heels. I finally found a report by Nick Corasaniti and Eduardo Medina in the NY Times, North Carolina GOP Brushes Aside Democratic Governor to Expand Power. They didn’t mention that in last month’s elections, 2,723,667 North Carolinians voted for Democrats running for the state House (51.2%) while only 2,526,571 (47.5%) voted for Republicans. The unconstitutional gerrymander was so well-done that those numbers yielded 71 seats for the GOP and just 49 for the Democrats, instead of 61 seats for the Democrats and 59 for the Republicans (in a non-gerrymandered universe). On the same day, 2,719,418 North Carolinians (50.2%) voted for Democratic candidates running for the state Senate and 2,601,321 (48.0%) voted for Republican candidates. The state Senate, also monstrously gerrymandered, now has 30 Republicans and 20 Democrats. In the gubernatorial election, Democrat Josh Stein beat Republican Mark Robinson 3,069,831 (54.9%) to 2,241,655 (40.1%) and in the election for Attorney General, Democrat Jeff Jackson beat Republican Dan Bishop 2,875,273 (51.4%) to 2,715,796 (48.6%). The rest of the Council of State election results:
Lieutenant Governor
Democrat- 49.5%
Republican- 47.6%
Secretary of State
Democrat- 51.0%
Republican- 49.0%
State Auditor
Democrat- 47.6%
Republican- 49.3%
Treasurer
Democrat- 47.5%
Republican- 52.5%
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Democrat- 51.1%
Republican- 48.9%
Commissioner of Agriculture
Democrat- 44.9%
Republican- 52.7%
Commissioner of Labor
Democrat- 47.2%
Republican- 52.8%
Commissioner of Insurance
Democrat- 47.8%
Republican- 52.2%
Corasaniti and Medina reported that the way the GOP dealt with this massive rejection by the voters— which includes a loss of their ability to override the governor’s vetos starting next month— was to “muscle through a sweeping expansion of their own power on Wednesday, overriding the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill that will give the GOP increased control over elections, judicial appointments and whether its laws stand up in the courts. Perhaps most striking was how Republicans did it: They titled the legislation ‘Disaster Relief’ but filled it with measures that had nothing to do with aid for areas devastated by Hurricane Helene and instead eroded the power of top state Democrats. Just 13 of the bill’s 131 pages dealt directly with the storm.”
Originally, the bill was vetoed by Governor Roy Cooper (D) last month. “Republicans,” they wrote, “then moved to overcome his veto in the final weeks of their single-vote supermajority in the House, where they lost key seats in November… The override vote, which passed by 72 to 46 along party lines, follows four years of efforts by Republicans nationwide to gain greater control over the mechanics of elections, a push initially fueled by Trump’s false claims about the 2020 presidential contest. State Representative Tim Moore, the departing Republican speaker of the House, said openly before the vote that the bill was meant to help his party win future elections. ‘This action item today is going to be critical to making sure North Carolina continues to be able to do what it can to deliver victories for Republicans up and down the ticket and move this country in the right direction,’ Moore told the Trump ally and conservative podcaster Stephen Bannon on Wednesday.”
The law will significantly restructure the state election board, the top authority over voting in North Carolina, wresting appointment power away from the governor’s office and handing it to the state auditor, who will be a Republican next year. The change is likely to put the board, which currently has three Democrats and two Republicans, under GOP control.
The legislation will also significantly restrict the governor’s ability to fill vacancies on state courts, including the Supreme Court, by limiting the options to candidates offered by the political party of the judge leaving the seat. And it will curtail the ability of the attorney general— currently Governor-elect Josh Stein, and next year Jeff Jackson, another Democrat— to challenge laws passed by the legislature.
Beyond those proposals, the law will make major changes to state election procedures. It will significantly shorten the time voters have after Election Day to address problems with their mail and absentee ballots— a process known as curing— and will require local election officials to finish counting provisional ballots within three days of the election.
Dawn Vaughan, with Avi Bajpai and Korie Dean, wrote for the News Observer that originally, the bill had been “written in secret and fast-tracked, with no committee hearings and with the House starting its debate on the bill less than an hour after it was made public. However, three Western North Carolina Republican House members originally voted against the bill, and Republicans typically cannot override a veto without support from every single Republican, depending on who shows up to vote. A three-fifths majority is required to override a veto. The three dissenting Republicans— Reps. Mark Pless of Canton, Mike Clampitt of Bryson City and Karl Gillespie of Franklin— had not said how they would vote on the override. All three flipped their votes Wednesday to support the bill… Moore said he knew that all Republicans would override the veto before the session started Wednesday afternoon. The N&O asked Moore if Clampitt, Gillespie and Pless were either promised something or threatened with being challenged in a primary if they didn’t vote for the override. Moore said ‘no. Nobody got threatened. But it doesn’t take too many people to realize if they vote against something that’s clearly a Republican ideal, that that might be a problem in a primary,’ Moore said. He noted that Democratic lawmakers have also been challenged in primary elections, and said, ‘some facts are painfully obvious.’… Before the Senate override vote, Sen. Ralph Hise, a Spruce Pine Republican, called the power changes a ‘restructuring to the executive branch of the government.’ There was no debate. Senators voted along party lines to overturn Cooper’s veto.”
Next stop: the courts.
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