The new leader of the State Board of Elections wants the power to replace more than a third of the agency's staff.
A bill that passed the state House Elections Committee Thursday would strip employment protections from 25 people at the agency administering elections. That means they could be hired or fired without cause.
Rep. Phil Rubin, D-Wake, says that would make election administration more partisan. "It allows them to be redesignated and fired for political reasons, and then replaced for political reasons," he said. "So that is a purge of the agency."
Rep. Sarah Stevens, R-Surry, says staffing changes are needed under new executive director Sam Hayes, a former attorney for House Speaker Destin Hall. She pointed to the elections board's lawsuit from the federal Department of Justice in the wake of N.C. Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin's election challenge.
"The new executive director needs to get a team that will follow the vision of changing the way things are done at the Board of Elections to accomplish free and fair elections," Stevens said.
Hayes made the case himself during Thursday's meeting. He says he's reorganizing the agency and wants to "make sure that the folks that are surrounding me, certainly my direct reports, and I are aligned on the vision for the agency as I've set forward. But I want to assure everyone here today that that we're going to do this in a nonpartisan fashion."
The bill would also require overseas and military voters to provide a copy of their photo ID. Griffin had challenged the way the 2024 election handled that issue. Photo IDs weren't required for those voters, and Griffin argued that should make their votes invalid.
Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, questioned whether the proposed requirement would conflict with federal regulations for military and overseas voters. Her question was referred to a legislative staffer, who said she didn't know the answer.
The new elections legislation would also:
- Ban the use of ranked-choice voting in North Carolina, which is not a method currently used in this state
- Require county elections boards to finish counting absentee ballots by 5 p.m. on the third business day following the election
- Allow county officials to begin counting early votes and absentee ballots at 9 a.m. on Election Day, but they couldn't report any election returns until after the polls close
- Require that party labels on the ballot be printed in a larger font size
- Ban county and state elections board members from making any public statements that are "supporting any political party over another, influencing voter turnout for a particular political party, and from encouraging or promoting voter turnout in any election"
While the bill passed the House Elections Committee on Thursday over objections from Democrats, it won't get a vote from the full House or Senate until after the legislature's summer break.
