NC Senate passes bill changing early voting, election audits and campaign-finance rules
House Bill 958 would limit early voting in several election types, require periodic county election audits and raise multiple campaign-finance reporting thresholds.
The North Carolina Senate passed an amended election-law bill Tuesday that would alter early-voting schedules, require periodic audits of county election administration and raise several campaign-finance reporting thresholds.
House Bill 958 passed its second reading 28-13 before receiving third-reading approval July 28. Because the Senate amended the House bill, the measure must return to the House for concurrence before it can be presented to the governor.
Under the Senate-approved version, the permitted period for one-stop early voting in primaries, second primaries, runoff elections, municipal elections and special elections would begin on the second Thursday before Election Day. The bill would generally allow no more than 10 consecutive days of early voting for those elections. The proposed scheduling changes would take effect Jan. 1, 2027.
The bill also would lengthen the period during which a prospective candidate generally must have been affiliated with a political party before filing in that party’s primary. The current 90-day requirement would become 365 days, although the legislation provides for a waiver process under specified circumstances.
A separate section would direct the Office of the State Auditor to conduct post-election audits of county election boards after election results are certified. Every county would have to be audited at least once during each six-year period. The bill says an audit finding could not be used to challenge final election results.
Several campaign-finance amounts would rise if the bill becomes law. The threshold for certain contributor-identification and nonmedia expenditure records would increase from $50 to $100. The reporting exemption available to some local candidates who do not raise or spend more than a designated amount would rise from $1,000 to $5,000. Other provisions would raise an independent-expenditure reporting threshold from $100 to $1,000 and the threshold for certain 48-hour contribution reports from $1,000 to $2,000.
The measure is not yet state law. Its proposed effective dates remain contingent on completion of the legislative process and enactment.
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.
