GOP pushes election reform, county chair identifies several issues
Apr. 30—The North Carolina Republican Party is looking to address some election reform issues during the General Assembly's short session that began April 24.
Lee County Grand Old Party Chair Jim Womack identified several such issues last week.
Two bills that were introduced in last year's long session provide the starting points, he said. These include Senate Bill 630 and House Bill 770.
The first bill would refer to November's general election ballot a question about whether voters should be U.S. citizens. The referendum, if approved, would add such language to the state constitution. Womack said adding the wording would make the requirement "clear and unambiguous." The current language says one must be born in the country or naturalized, he said.
The second bill would require that a digital image of ballots be created for use in post-election tabulation results.
Womack said North Carolina is one of the few states in the U.S. without such a record. He explained that it helps ensure voting machine accuracy.
Other issues that would be passed in an ideal scenario, according to Womack, include eliminating same-day voter registration, shortening the early-voting period from 17 to 10 days and strengthening student ID requirements to prevent voter fraud.
Womack said that same-day voter registration creates disparate treatment of voters because those who register on election day can't have their address verified like other voters. He added that the issue was addressed in Senate Bill 747 last year, but that part of the omnibus election bill was tossed in January by U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush. The Republicans had attempted to tweak the law by requiring only one address verification for same-day voter registrants instead of two, which could have resulted in their ballots being tossed without passing one verification attempt.
Womack said the GOP wants to reduce the early voting period to help local election boards save money. "It's very costly," he said, adding that "most citizens want seven to 10 days" for early voting instead of 17.
He also wants to tighten requirements for student IDs for those who attend a college or university. "Foreign students get a student ID. In many cases, you can't identify citizenship" based on the student ID, he said.
Another issue Womack would like to see addressed is allowing election offices to "universally accept inputs from citizen groups" to update the voter registration list.
He noted that the National Change of Address Directory was used by election boards until 2013, but subsequent federal court rulings resulted in its non-use.
The North Carolina Election Integrity Team estimates that 15% of the voter rolls are corrupt, he said.
The National "Motor Voter" Law passed in 1993 has resulted in automatic voter registration for some non-citizens, according to Womack. "The DMV is very sloppy in the voter registration process," he said.
He noted that the Public Interest Legal Foundation settled a lawsuit against the state of North Carolina several years ago that resulted in thousands of people being removed from the voter rolls.
According to that organization's website, "documents obtained by PILF reveal that North Carolina identified 1,454 registrants on the voter roll who did not appear to be naturalized before Election Day 2014 and would need to be challenged at the polls. Of those, 89 attempted to vote."
The Sanford Herald asked Sam Gaskins, chair of the Lee County Democratic Party, for comment about these issues.
In general, Gaskins said, "It's typical for Republicans to make it more difficult for people to vote."
