Under the Dome: NC seeks funding to modernize elections
Good morning and welcome to the Under the Dome newsletter. I’m Caitlyn Yaede.
Lawmakers heard a presentation Wednesday from the head of the state election board, Karen Brinson Bell. She says her agency needs funding to update decades-old critical systems. Kyle Ingram has the details. But first, coming up today:
OVERSIGHT HEARING INCLUDES DMV, AFTER GOODWIN RESIGNS
The House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing Thursday with several leaders of new Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s administration along with Republican State Treasurer Brad Briner. One of those scheduled to speak has already resigned.
Lawmakers will ask: “Does the agency make life in North Carolina better?”
Those scheduled to appear are Stein’s choice for revenue secretary, McKinley Wooten Jr., State Controller Nels Roseland, State Budget Director Kristin Walker, Briner, Department of Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins and Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Wayne Goodwin.
Goodwin announced on Wednesday morning during a committee meeting that he would step down as head of the DMV. Goodwin will assist Stein and Hopkins in finding his successor. Richard Stradling has the details.
Goodwin, a former state representative, was appointed commissioner in 2022 and has faced criticism from Republicans in the legislature over management of the DMV throughout his term.
Hopkins told lawmakers Stein hopes to improve the DMV and make it a more “customer-friendly experience,” and said they hope to find someone with more business and management skills.
Republicans, who hold a majority in the House, chair the oversight committee.
– Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, Richard Stradling and Caitlyn Yaede
Money requested for election systems
North Carolina’s election management system is woefully outdated and requires more funding for modernization, the agency’s director told state lawmakers on Wednesday.
“We have duct-taped, we have Band-Aded – but the reality is that there are critical risks in the need to modernize,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said.
Her remarks came during a meeting of the Joint Appropriations Committee on General Government, where she was invited to discuss the State Election Information Management System.
The board has long sought funding to update SEIMS, which was developed in 1998 and is responsible for a vast array of functions critical to conducting elections, including processing voter registrations and reporting election results.
Brinson Bell said the outdated software could pose security risks, whereas a more modern system could provide faster responses to public records requests and quicker election results.
The last budget provided $5.6 million to modernize the system – about $3 million less than the board requested.
Brinson Bell told lawmakers that while work was already underway to update applications with the funds provided, more would still be necessary to bring the system into the 21st century.
“Help us complete this,” she said. “Give us the full funding we need and we can do a better job.”
While questioning Brinson Bell, committee members referenced the ongoing legal battle over the state Supreme Court election, in which Republican Jefferson Griffin, who appears to have lost the race, has challenged over 65,000 ballots using untested legal methods.
Part of Griffin’s case claims that voters who did not have a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number in the state’s database should not have been allowed to vote.
Rep. Donnie Loftis, a Gaston County Republican, questioned whether updates to SEIMS could address that issue in the future by halting voter registrations without the data.
Brinson Bell said the system already attempts to do so, but more safeguards could be added.
“When that’s provided, we do enter it and then we have to push it for validation -- that means we’re communicating with the (Division) of Motor Vehicles, the Social Security Administration – so I don’t want folks to think that doesn’t exist,” she said.
The Senate is expected to release its budget proposal in April.
— Kyle Ingram
State funding sought for Eastern NC
It’s been nearly a month since the troubled agency Rebuild NC requested $217 million more in state funding to repair and replace the remaining homes damaged by hurricanes Matthew and Florence, which hit the state in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
Pryor Gibson, named interim director under former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, made the plea in January but faced sharp criticism from lawmakers. They said the agency had repeatedly asked for more money without delivering results, despite a recent uptick in completed projects as of December. (And as of December, about 1,200 homes remained incomplete.)
Now, that full $217 million request might be granted.
On Tuesday, Republican House Majority Leader Brenden Jones filed the C.O.O.P.E.R. Accountability Act — a reference to Cooper, who established Rebuild NC. On social media, Jones flagged the bill, writing “No more excuses. Just results.”
Beyond the funding, the bill mandates spending reports and requires the agency to reassess all applicants denied or deemed ineligible in the past 180 days.
The bill hasn’t been put on the calendar for a committee hearing yet, and the Senate would also have to approve it.
— Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi
DOT CONFIRMATION HEARING
For the second time in less than a year, Joey Hopkins has begun the process of being confirmed by the Senate as North Carolina’s secretary of transportation.
Hopkins appeared before the Transportation Committee on Wednesday, the first step toward a vote in the full Senate. He came before the same committee last April, seven months after Gov. Roy Cooper had named him acting transportation secretary.
Hopkins said he thought his time running NCDOT under Cooper would be the capstone of a 35-year career at the agency. That changed when the remnants of Hurricane Helene tore through the mountains.
“Shortly after Helene hit, late September, when I understood the scope of the damage and the amount of effort and funding it would take to help Western North Carolina to recover, I realized that I wanted to stay,” he told the committee Wednesday.
Though he’s been doing the job for 17 months, Hopkins returns as Gov. Josh Stein’s nominee for the job.
NCDOT estimates it will cost about $5 billion to repair and rebuild roads and bridges damaged by Helene; the next costliest storm in state history was Hurricane Florence in 2018, which cost the department about $250 million.
The department has already spent more than $425 million on Helene, Hopkins told senators. While it’s just the beginning, it’s something he’s proud of.
“Getting that money out the door, and getting those roads restored and reopened in that amount of time with the damage we had, I don’t know that anybody else could have done that,” he said. “I’m so proud of our team for leading us down that path.”
Some of the senators echoed that praise for the department and for Hopkins. Sen. Tim Moffitt, a Republican from Hendersonville, said he couldn’t say enough about how NCDOT has responded to the storm.
“Thank you for your willingness to stay here in the fire with us up here in the mountains,” he told Hopkins. “We’ve got a long way to go.”
The Senate committee unanimously voted in support of the confirmation.
— Richard Stradling
CELLPHONE BILL MOVES FORWARD
Both the House and the Senate have now advanced bills that would limit cellphone use in schools by students.
The Senate Education Committee discussed its version Wednesday, the day after the House advanced its own version.
Senate Bill 55 requires school districts to adopt a policy prohibiting use of cellphones and other wireless communication devices during instruction time, with some exceptions.
Republican Sen. Michael Lee of Wilmington, the bill sponsor, said that based on research, having phones off is the best plan, but school district policies could allow phones to be on in emergency situations.
The Senate bill is in the Rules Committee on Thursday, which is the final stop before it goes to the floor for a vote.
You can read more about it in a story from T. Keung Hui and me.
— Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan
MCHENRY JOINS SILICON VALLEY FIRM
Former U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry of Lincoln County announced on X that he would be joining Marc Andreessen-owned a16z as a senior adviser. The Silicon Valley capital firm is also known as Andreessen Horowitz, and was an early investor in Facebook and Instagram.
Although Andreessen has long been involved in politics and identified himself as a Democrat for much of his career, he became an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump in 2024 and went on to advise his administration’s transition.
This announcement comes after McHenry finished a 20-year tenure in Congress representing North Carolina’s 10th district. He was first elected to Congress in 2004 and was the youngest member at the time, at 29 years old.
The Gastonia-born Republican served in many leadership positions during his time in Congress, including as chief deputy whip from 2014 to 2019 and as chairman of the Financial Services Committee.
WHAT ELSE WE’RE WORKING ON
In a bipartisan effort, the House passed a bill increasing unemployment benefits to $450 weekly, Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi reports. This is an increase from $350 weekly for up to 12 weeks. Only one lawmaker — Democratic Rep. Deb Butler of New Hanover County — voted against the bill, citing a provision that would shift power over unemployment policies to the legislature.
North Carolina native Dan Driscoll was approved by the Senate to lead the U.S. Army, Danielle Battaglia reports. After growing up in Banner Elk, Driscoll attended Yale University, where he befriended now Vice President JD Vance. Vance donated to Diriscoll’s campaign to represent the state’s 11th Congressional District, although he was defeated in the Republican primary by Madison Cawthorn. Driscoll served in the Army for four years, earning the rank of first lieutenant.
The House unanimously approved a bill that includes $500 million in Hurricane Helene relief on Tuesday — bringing the state’s total relief spending to more than $1.1 billion. This version of the state’s fourth relief bill is off to the Senate, Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi reports.
WHAT ELSE WE’RE READING
The House held hearings on two new tax bills this week that would impact gambling and taxes on tipped income, WUNC’s Colin Campbell reports. The former, targeting gambling losses, would create an income tax deduction for such losses. Rep. Erin Paré, one of the bill’s sponsors, defended the bill amid criticism that it may promote gambling, saying it’s a tax bill with gambling in the title. A “No Tax on Tips” bill also received a committee hearing and would allow up to $2,500 to be deducted from tips, bonuses or overtime pay.
Today’s newsletter was by Caitlyn Yaede, Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, Richard Stradling, Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi and Kyle Ingram. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol.
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This story was originally published February 27, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Under the Dome: NC seeks funding to modernize elections."
