The Republican-led North Carolina House on Tuesday approved a bill that would make it easier for residents to challenge other people’s votes and county boards to toss those ballots, alarming critics who say the law could cause post-election chaos.The bill, which the state Senate passed last week, allows county residents to challenge early voters’ ballots up to three business days after an election.County election boards can then vote to invalidate those votes with a simple majority of members.
Previously, challenges had to be filed by Election Day, before anyone knew how close a race was and how many votes would need to be throw out to change the outcome.County election boards, which are comprised of both Republicans and Democrats, then had to unanimously agree to throw out the ballot.
North Carolina county election boards are currently controlled by Republicans, after state legislators stripped the governor of his appointment power and gave it to state Auditor Dave Boliek, a Republican.The bill now goes to the desk of Democratic Gov.Josh Stein, who sharply criticized the bill in an interview with NBC News.
He is likely to veto it, but North Carolina Republicans have a veto-proof majority in the Senate and close to one in the House, and could still override him.In an interview with NBC News, Stein evoked Jefferson Griffin, a Republican candidate for state Supreme Court in 2024 who challenged 60,000 votes after he narrowly lost incumbent Justice Allison Riggs.The legal battle stretched on for six months after the election.“What I’m worried about is Jefferson Griffin’s lawsuit run wild,” said Stein.For their part, Republicans have argued the bill would strengthen state elections.In other states, amateur voter fraud hunters have taken to personally perusing the voter rolls and challenging votes they believe are ineligible, often based on commercial data that is less reliable than the databases election officials use when they conduct voter roll list mai...