{"id":475,"date":"2026-07-23T21:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=475"},"modified":"2026-07-23T21:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:06:18","slug":"north-carolina-republicans-have-a-new-plan-to-disenfranchise-voters-it-could-determine-control-of-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homemovechronicle.com\/?p=475","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina Republicans Have a New Plan to Disenfranchise Voters. It Could Determine Control of Congress."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sign up for Executive Dysfunction, a newsletter that highlights one under-the-radar story each week about how Trump is changing the law\u2014or how the law is pushing back. You\u2019ll also receive updates on the latest from Slate\u2019s Jurisprudence team.<\/p>\n

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Since Republicans took over North Carolina\u2019s election board last year, they have changed the rules to make it harder to vote early and empowered local Republicans to block certain voters and throw out ballots on party-line votes. The new rules could be viewed as the culmination of the GOP\u2019s voter suppression efforts in recent decades, and it could set the stage for yet another attempt to change the outcome of an election. Given the role North Carolina might play in deciding control of Congress during the 2026 midterms, the stakes could not be higher.<\/p>\n

This week, state Republicans took an even more dangerous step that could threaten the credibility of that vote. The state elections board adopted a new rule on Monday that requires voters, instead of local election workers, to fix problems with their absentee ballots if they want them to count. This comes after they changed the rules just last week to allow Republican majorities on local election boards to block voters who cast their ballots through the mail or on Election Day. Such decisions had to be unanimous in past elections.<\/p>\n

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The board\u2019s decision last week was the latest effort to restrict voting through a new voter ID mandate. Voters without ID can cast a provisional ballot if they face a \u201creasonable impediment\u201d to getting the required documents. But Republican board members will now have the power to decide that people are lying about their impediments.<\/p>\n

These changes and many others leave many Democrats worried that Republican election boards could try to disenfranchise voters in close elections. Civil rights advocates and Get Out the Vote activists are increasingly worrying that only one option\u2014early, in-person voting\u2014will be safe from partisan voter suppression.<\/p>\n

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Civil rights advocates and Democratic board members fought the rule changes. Democracy NC warned, \u201cWith razor-thin margins deciding races up and down the ballot,\u201d the new voter ID rule \u201cis a serious threat to fair elections.\u201d The local chapter of Common Cause said, \u201cBlack voters specifically are disproportionately less likely to have qualifying photo ID, and voters who are unable to produce voter ID at the polling place are at a high risk of having their provisional ballots rejected.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s good reason to worry that some local election boards will target voters who they think support Democrats, including Black voters and college students. They\u2019ve already slashed early-voting sites with party-line decisions. And they were acting on orders from state auditor Dave Boliek, who Republicans put in charge of elections last year, and his former liaison to local boards, who recently resigned after their scheme became public. One local board member claimed that Boliek was trying to boost turnout in Republican counties.<\/p>\n

Local boards have rejected early-voting sites on college campuses, usually on party-line votes. This week, the Guilford County board rejected pleas from students at North Carolina A&T, the country\u2019s largest historically Black university, for a site near the center of campus. The elections board meets in a building near the historic site where four A&T students launched the sit-in movement to protest racial segregation in 1960. One graduate student was ejected from this week\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

The board in Jackson County, which includes Western Carolina University, cut an early-voting site on the campus after Boliek\u2019s office told them they could be fired if they didn\u2019t. One Republican board member responded, \u201cKiss my ass.\u201d Fortunately, not every Republican on a local election board is following Boliek\u2019s orders.<\/p>\n

Read more Arizona\u2019s Next House Member Has a Cool Hat\u2014and a Massive Problem With the Constitution<\/a><\/p>\n

Some local boards have limited early voting on the Sunday when Black churches have historically organized \u201csouls to the polls\u201d events. Many of these decisions weren\u2019t unanimous, so they will soon be reviewed by the state board.<\/p>\n

Republicans fought for nearly a decade to make it harder to vote in North Carolina. After they flipped the state Supreme Court in 2022, they finally managed to wrest control of elections away from the governor, who has a constitutional responsibility to execute election laws. And they got a voter ID mandate in place\u2014after two separate bills were struck down as racially discriminatory.<\/p>\n

Now local Republican election board members will decide who can vote and which ballots should count. This could prove crucial, as two Supreme Court elections were decided by 401 and 723 votes, respectively, in recent years. With elections this close and millions of voters in the state, small tweaks to the election rules can make all the difference.<\/p>\n

Given this partisanship in election administration, there are growing fears that the GOP could\u2014once again\u2014try to steal a close election in broad daylight. The Republican who narrowly lost the 2024 state Supreme Court election tried to convince his would-be colleagues to throw out thousands of ballots, which complied with all existing rules, in a handful of Democratic-leaning counties, and the GOP justices agreed. If something similar happens this year, Democrats will once again have to plead with federal courts to stop the scheme and pray that the U.S. Supreme Court doesn\u2019t intervene.<\/p>\n

Given all this, North Carolinians may feel less confident in absentee voting or even voting on Election Day. Certain voters, members of communities that have been disenfranchised before, may now be less confident that their vote will count.<\/p>\n

Early voting in person is the safest way for them to ensure they\u2019re not disenfranchised by partisan games. That\u2019s because new rules that allow Republicans to reject a voter\u2019s ID don\u2019t apply to those who vote early. Voter registration and Get Out the Vote groups are also emphasizing the need for voters to bring sufficient ID to the polls.<\/p>\n

Voting early will give citizens time to clear up any challenges to their ID or their registration. Here in North Carolina, Republicans really want to take away our vote. We can\u2019t let them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s Latest Under-the-Radar Mass Deportation Moves Are Truly Creepy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state elections board adopted a rule on Monday that requires voters, instead of local election workers, to fix problems with their absentee ballots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[63,9,11,116,51,16,17],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jurisprudence","tag-2026-midterms","tag-congress","tag-jurisprudence","tag-north-carolina","tag-republicans","tag-voting","tag-voting-rights"],"yoast_head":"\nNorth Carolina Republicans Have a New Plan to Disenfranchise Voters. 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