Fact-checking: NC’s election chief that the council did not change the state law ‘mostly false’ WFAE 90.7

At a meeting of the North Carolina Committee last month, Karen Brinson Bell, director of the election, told lawmakers that the state council would not change the law when it changed the rules for absentee ballots during the 2020 election. . The changes have led to controversy and legal challenges. WRAL’s Paul Specht joins us to assess the claims of Brinson Bell.

Marshall Terry: First, Paul reminds us: What specific changes has the board made to the absentee ballot?

Paul Specht: The first deals with how long ballot papers may be by mail. Under state law, ballot papers that are not absent can be accepted no more than three days after election day. The rules changed on one so that it would be accepted until nine days after election day. And then the others deal with testimony signatures. Historically, in North Carolina, you had to have a witness – or two – sign your absent ballot before sending it.

These are generally laws as well, and by that I mean that legislators pass a law that must sign a testimony. It also changed for the 2020 election through a settlement that the Electoral Council agreed to. They said voters who posted an absent ballot without signing could fill out an affidavit to verify that their vote was legal.

Terry: And why did the board make these changes?

Woodpecker: They were sued. Last year, of course, we were in the midst of a global pandemic, and some advocacy groups – Democracy North Carolina, the Alliance for Retired Americans – sued the Electoral Council to try to relax rules to try to reduce the risk of COVID proliferation. the election.

Terry: Can you give us some context about Brinson Bell’s claim last month? Why did she speak before the Legislative Committee?

Woodpecker: She spoke before the committee because there was a delay in efforts to gather census information … so the process will continue until 2021, and it could affect how elections are held in North Carolina. So she appears before the committee at the Capitol to say, ‘Hey, we have some recommendations for the 2021 municipal election, and here’s an update on what we think would be needed.’

Terry: Was she right when she said that the council did not change the state legislation regarding the rules on absentee ballots last year?

Woodpecker: No, she’s not right. The electoral council agreed through the settlement to change the laws. The council will now argue that it has the power to change laws and that they have not violated any law in this way. And we are not reasoning it here. We say that they have entered into an agreement in which they changed the laws for the 2020 election. I think this is pretty indisputable given the two absent voting rules we mentioned were passed by legislators and put in the books.

Woodpecker: You have contacted legal experts about this. What do they say?

Woodpecker: They saw it that way too. There is an argument that under North Carolina law, the board has the flexibility to change voting rules. And the board told me, ‘We think it’s more like extending the voting walls when there is a delay.’ And we hear a lot about it during election time – we hear about a polling station where the machine has broken down, and therefore they need to extend the time that voters may have to be there. It’s a kind of routine.

But experts we spoke to say they despise the issue here. Instead of passing judgment on whether a polling station needs more hours for the people in line, it is very different from deviating from the absent rules for the ballot papers placed in the general laws. is.

Terry: Does the Electoral Council even have the power to change state law in North Carolina?

Woodpecker: This is a good question. The argument leads the council. It did go as far as the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court did not want to intervene. This may not necessarily mean that they are blessing this settlement or its contents or. They did not want to intervene, and the settlement continued.

Terry: How did you rate the claim of election director Karen Brinson Bell?

Woodpecker: We mostly misjudged it. We saw no way to avoid the fact that there were laws on the books and then it was changed by a settlement. And it is important to note that this has only changed for the 2020 election. I mean, that’s part of the reason why it’s mostly false and not a full-fledged falsehood, and that’s because these changes were temporary.

Terry: All right, Paul, thank you.

Woodpecker: Thank you for having me.