{"id":452,"date":"2026-06-15T20:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=452"},"modified":"2026-06-15T20:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:35:11","slug":"nc-house-elections-bill-adds-requirements-for-overseas-voters-allows-for-more-partisan-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=452","title":{"rendered":"NC House elections bill adds requirements for overseas voters, allows for more partisan staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>A sweeping proposal on who can vote, how they can vote, and how votes are counted will be debated at 10 am Tuesday in the N.C. House Elections Committee.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=450\">One US-made drug treats congenital syphilis, and the country is running short<\/a><\/p>\n<p>An electronic portal for public comments on House Bill 958 has been established on the General Assembly homepage.<\/p>\n<p>Among other changes, the bill would:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Prohibit state and local elections board members from \u201cencouraging or promoting voter turnout in any election.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Require military and overseas voters to submit documentation showing their most recent North Carolina address along with their registration applications. They would also be required to submit photo identification with their ballots. The ID requirement puts into law a state Supreme Court decision in Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin\u2019s unsuccessful attempt to throw out ballots in his 2024 race for a Supreme Court seat.<\/li>\n<li>Make overseas voters who have never lived in North Carolina but vote in the state because their parents last lived here ineligible to vote in state or local elections. This also reflects a state Supreme Court decision in the Griffin case. Griffin\u2019s lawsuit referred to these voters as \u201cnever residents.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Give voters who cast provisional ballots because they didn\u2019t show ID, or who have mistakes or omissions on their absentee ballot envelopes, called \u201ccurable deficiencies\u201d, a few more days to show their ID or correct the mistakes. The bill extends the deadline for corrections from Friday after an election to Tuesday after an election.<\/li>\n<li>Give county elections boards more time to announce absentee ballot counts, moving the deadline from Friday after an election to Tuesday.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The bill would give state Elections Director Sam Hayes the ability to make 25 members of his staff political appointees, exempting them from state Human Resources Act protections and allowing them to be fired at will.<\/p>\n<p>The bill also continues $1.2 million in funding Hayes was granted for seven exempt positions in a mini-budget the legislature approved last year.<\/p>\n<p>Hayes, former general counsel for House Speaker Destin Hall, was hired to run elections\u00a0 administration last year after Republicans became the majority on the state Board of Elections.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The NC elections board hired a lawyer who was also suing it<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"MNGFQNnbHP\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"282\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" scrolling=\"no\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/ncnewsline.com\/2026\/05\/04\/the-nc-elections-board-hired-a-lawyer-who-was-also-suing-it\/embed\/#?secret=kFhhUs7WWj#?secret=MNGFQNnbHP\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cThe NC elections board hired a lawyer who was also suing it\u201d \u2014 NC Newsline\" width=\"500\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The bill would remove Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson\u2019s office from legal cases involving the state Board of Elections. The board will use its own lawyers or hire private lawyers instead.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=448\">Republican attorneys general urge EPA to classify mifepristone as water contaminant<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A mini-budget last year gave the board $1.5 million to hire private lawyers. The House bill does not include a cap, but says the board would \u201cuse funds available.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bill would make secret from the public \u201c[a]ll communications or documents made or used in connection with the provision of legal services by counsel employed or retained under this section.\u201d The bill makes these documents exempt from the state\u2019s public records law.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, NC Newsline used the state\u2019s public records law to obtain a letter written by Phil Strach, the state GOP\u2019s go-to lawyer in elections and redistricting matters, as Hayes was seeking to hire him.<\/p>\n<p>Strach wanted Hayes to sign a waiver acknowledging that his firm was representing clients that were suing the board at the same time. It appears that letters such as Strach\u2019s would no longer be public records under the bill.<\/p>\n<p>Judicial review of state elections board decisions would no longer automatically be heard in Wake County Superior Court. Those reviews could be heard in Wake or in the home county of the person seeking the review.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=446\">With Iran peace agreement to be signed Friday, Trump says ships moving in Strait of Hormuz<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NC broad elections bill would put more requirements on overseas voters, allow for more partisan staff in the state elections office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NC House elections bill adds requirements for overseas voters, allows for more partisan staff - 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