NC House committee okays a sweeping election bill, but its sponsor says it needs more work. The vote, expected on June 17 has not happened as of Wednesday evening. Many thanks to everyone who called in and made public comments. From NC Newline on Tuesday: “The General Assembly has decided that it is okay to take our free and fair elections and put a very heavy foot on the scale,” said Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Emancipate NC. “We deserve election laws that make it easier and not harder for all of us to exercise our constitutional right to vote.”

A North Carolina House committee advanced an elections bill that would change a range of election laws, with some Democrats objecting to provisions expanding the window for challenging voters, granting the state Auditor new powers, and allowing the state elections board to shroud its legal hiring in secrecy.

The bill was set to speed through the House committee process Tuesday, but hit a speed bump as dozens of protesters filled legislative halls and committee rooms…

…Among the bill’s provisions are:

• Giving county election boards more time to announce absentee ballot counts, moving the deadline from Friday after an election to Tuesday.
• Requiring military and overseas voters to submit documentation showing their most recent North Carolina address along with their registration applications. They would also be required to submit photo identification with their ballots. The ID requirement puts into law a state Supreme Court decision in Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin’s unsuccessful attempt to throw out ballots in his 2024 race for a Supreme Court seat.
• Making overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina but vote in the state because their parents last lived here ineligible to vote in state or local elections. This also reflects a state Supreme Court decision in the Griffin case. Griffin’s lawsuit referred to these voters as “never residents.”
• Giving voters who cast provisional ballots because they didn’t show ID, or who have mistakes or omissions on their absentee ballot envelopes, called “curable deficiencies”, a few more days to show their ID or correct the mistakes. The bill extends the deadline for corrections from Friday after an election to Tuesday after an election.

WHY THE SECRECY?

…At a news conference, Rubin also objected to the provision that cuts the office of Democratic State Attorney General Jeff Jackson out of state elections legal cases and directs the elections board to hire private attorneys instead.

The bill would make secret from the public “[a]ll communications or documents made or used in connection with the provision of legal services by counsel employed or retained under this section” by exempting those documents from the state’s public records law…

Read the entire article at https://ncnewsline.com/2026/06/16/nc-house-committee-okays-a-sweeping-election-bill-but-its-sponsor-says-it-needs-more-work/?emci=a72e4c1b-ec69-f111-8fcb-000d3a14b640&emdi=048b1724-446a-f111-8fcb-000d3a14b640&ceid=247428

And please call your representatives in Raleigh and tell them how you feel and ask them to oppose HB 958! Contact information here: https://rowancountydemocrats.com/contact-your-representatives/