There’s no reason why one party should control NC’s board of elections | Opinion

“This Senate Republican elections bill goes straight to the heart of democracy,” North Carolina Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue said this week.

It surely does, but not in the way that Blue asserts. At issue is whether just one political party will wield the power to administer North Carolina’s 2024 election or if both parties will share that power.

I have yet to hear a compelling argument — or any argument, really — for why one political party should control the State Board of Elections (SBOE), as is the status quo in North Carolina.

Senate Bill 749, the elections bill Blue referenced, would divide power at the SBOE equally among Republicans and Democrats. It gives two board appointments each to the majority and minority leaders of the N.C. House and Senate.

I find it very difficult to take seriously the sermons about “protecting democracy” when the very same people claim democracy is strongest when Democrats count the votes. If democracy is truly in danger, bill opponents must explain how granting to one political party the core function of a democracy helps fix the problem.

The mistrust we see is understandable. Just look at how the SBOE has conducted itself in recent years. Three of the group’s handpicked chairpersons resigned in succession, including one for making inappropriate and politically charged statements.

North Carolina’s chief elections officer is now Karen Brinson Bell. Is she some apolitical technocrat? Well, here’s how a 2019 WRAL headline put it: “Democrats turned to Cooper’s political arm in replacing state elections director.” The article said Democratic appointees to the SBOE got Brinson Bell’s name from Gov. Cooper’s “political folks.” They interviewed her offsite and “two at a time to avoid running afoul of the state’s open meetings law.”

This is how the person who runs North Carolina’s elections was chosen.

Just one year after her hiring, Brinson Bell effectively changed the laws governing N.C. elections — after voting had already begun — by settling a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Party’s top elections lawyer. Simultaneously, Brinson Bell’s board declined to settle another lawsuit relating to blind voters because “These changes would need to be made while voting is actually happening which presents particular risk that could jeopardize the ongoing election process.”

The whole episode stinks, and two federal judges agreed. Judge William Osteen called the board’s conduct “flagrant” and said the board’s actions “appear to ignore the rule of law.” Judge James Dever wrote: “At bottom, the (board) has ignored the statutory scheme and arbitrarily created multiple, disparate regimes under which North Carolina voters cast absentee ballots.”

All of this unhealthy political intrigue could have been avoided with a SBOE evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, as required in Senate Bill 749.

Gov. Cooper said in a tweet this week that the bill would give Republicans “the power to ignore voters and rig elections.” That such an arrangement would result in “rigged elections,” or somehow threatens democracy, seems an outrageously irresponsible claim.

Granting the two parties equal power in administering elections is a perfectly reasonable policy choice.

This story was originally published June 15, 2023 at 2:37 PM.