Election law changes bill moves to Senate Rules
House Bill 958 would make statewide changes to election administration, voter registration, ballot challenges, audits and campaign finance reporting.
RALEIGH — A wide-ranging election law bill remains active in the North Carolina Senate after passing the House last week.
House Bill 958, titled “Election Law Changes,” was referred to the Senate Rules and Operations Committee on July 1 after passing first reading in the Senate, according to the North Carolina General Assembly bill page. The bill passed the House on June 30 after several amendments.
The bill would make multiple statewide changes to election administration, voter registration, ballot challenges, campaign finance reporting and post-election audits.
A legislative analysis prepared for the bill says House Bill 958 would prohibit State Board of Elections and county board members from making statements intended for general distribution to support or oppose candidates or political parties, influence turnout for a candidate or party, or influence turnout in an election.
The bill would also authorize the State Board to employ staff counsel or retain private counsel, rather than relying on the attorney general for legal services. It would require certain petitions seeking review of State Board decisions to be filed in Wake County Superior Court or in the superior court of the county where the person seeking review resides.
Other provisions would affect voter registration and ballot challenges. The bill analysis says county boards would have shorter timelines for sending address verification notices for applications received within 100 days before an election. It would also require voter registration applications to affirmatively indicate that an applicant is a U.S. citizen before processing.
House Bill 958 would require the State Board to conduct a statewide audit to identify early voting or mail-in absentee ballots that may be ineligible to be counted based on official government database records. It would require those lists to be distributed to county boards after elections.
The bill would also require the State Auditor to conduct post-election audits of election systems and controls after each general election and make annual audit reports available on the auditor’s website.
Campaign finance provisions would raise several reporting thresholds, including the threshold for candidates to be exempt from reporting requirements from $1,000 to $3,000 and the threshold for independent expenditure reporting from $100 to $1,000. The bill would also add provisions dealing with foreign national contributions and referendum-related activity.
House Bill 958 remains in Senate Rules, which controls whether many bills receive further Senate action.
Editor’s note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.
