New election audits, ban on ranked choice voting on hold

The legislation drew sharp criticism from Democrats and their support groups. The bill was authored by Reps. Hugh Blackwell, R-Burke, and Sarah Stevens, R-Surry; Stevens has since resigned to focus on her state Supreme Court election campaign.

Election Law Changes, known also as House Bill 958, was reported favorably from the House Election Law Committee on Tuesday and rereferred to the Rules Committee. But the bill never reached the House floor, leaving its future uncertain.

Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, praised the bill, writing Tuesday that HB958 was “back, bigger and, mostly, better than ever” and that “most of the provisions in the bill, old and new, will improve North Carolina’s elections and make them more secure.”

One of the bill’s most debated provisions would have authorized the state auditor to conduct post-election performance audits. Blackwell said the audits would occur after elections are complete and would not affect election outcomes.

“It’s more of an evaluation or an assessment of how well the process works and where we can make improvements,” Blackwell said.

The bill would also have banned ranked-choice voting in North Carolina primaries and elections. Ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank candidates by preference, rather than selecting just one.

Other provisions would have required faster address-verification mailings for new voter registrations; allowed nonpartisan candidates to appoint election observers; changed campaign-finance reporting thresholds; barred foreign contributions to referendum campaigns; banned payment per petition signature; and directed a study on a possible absentee-ballot signature-verification pilot program.