Sen. Hise Statement on Failed Backdoor Attempt to Rewrite Election Laws

Raleigh, N.C. — Today, the North Carolina Rules Review Commission unanimously rejected a backdoor attempt by the Democratic Party-controlled Board of Elections to rewrite the laws governing elections in a swing state six months before a presidential election.

Background

In 2018, the years-long legal battle to determine whether the N.C. Board of Elections would be bipartisan or controlled by one political party concluded with a Democratic Party victory.

Now, elections administration is controlled entirely by the Democratic Party. Governor Roy Cooper appoints a majority of members on the Board of Elections. Shortly after winning partisan control of the elections machinery, Gov. Cooper summarily fired the long-serving, well-respected Executive Director of the Board of Elections (who rooted out fraud in a Republican Congressional race) and replaced her with a handpicked partisan successor.

The new handpicked partisan Executive Director proposed a rule change that would grant her unilateral authority to change elections laws months before a major swing state presidential election.

The Rules Review Commission, which is tasked with vetting proposed rules, unanimously rejected that egregious partisan overreach.

Senator Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell), who co-chairs the Senate Committee on Elections and Redistricting, said, “Legislators are focused on working on bipartisan legislation that will ensure that all voters have safe access to the ballot while protecting the integrity of the election, just like we did unanimously last year. Empowering one person who was appointed by a partisan board controlled by Governor Cooper to rewrite our state’s elections laws months before a presidential election is improper and would undermine public confidence in our elections system.

“This distrust is the natural result of having one political party control the entire elections apparatus of a state.”