Legislators are Fixing Something that was Badly Broken.
Had Republicans behaved like the Democrats in charge of the Board of Elections, they would've been rightly skewered.
Imagine this alternate reality for a second because it's an instructive thought experiment.
It's two months before a national election. A Republican attorney general and a Republican State Board of Elections sign off on a rewrite of the state's election laws, written by a Republican organization's top lawyers. They don't need to go through the General Assembly because this is a "settlement" to a lawsuit brought by that Republican organization. The new laws are effective immediately.
Nevermind that some ballots have already been cast. This is necessary to protect our democracy, so you just need to trust us, they said.
To the reporters who follow this blog: Do you think maybe that would be a problem? Because that's almost exactly what happened in 2020, just with the political parties reversed.
That episode was among the worst examples of the governor-controlled Board's behavior, but it's not the only example.
Recall the track record of the Board under Gov. Roy Cooper:
Multiple chairs had to resign for overt partisan behavior, bizarre actions, or other unsavory reasons.
The Board fired a widely-respected and nonpartisan executive director (who had just completed a successful investigation into election fraud that overturned the results of a Republican-won congressional election!). Why? Here's the News & Observer's take: "It’s because she is not a Democrat and the Board of Elections is majority Democrat."
To find a new executive director, the Board "turned to Cooper's political arm," according to WRAL. The people in charge of counting votes asked the political team for the state's top Democratic candidate who they should hire to count the votes!
The Green Party, widely seen as a threat to siphon away Democratic votes in close elections, had to SUE the Board of Elections in 2022 to win ballot access.
This list is nowhere near exhaustive. The Board's behavior has discredited the body in the eyes of many, and it's an entirely reasonable position.
Legislators have tried for years to reach some sort of accommodation with Democrats to create balance on the Board of Elections. Legislators' argument has always been one political party should not control the elections apparatus of this state.
And for years, Democrats have resisted that balance. Here are the various offers made over the years that Democrats rejected:
An evenly divided 4-4 Board of Elections with members nominated equally by Democratic Party, Republican Party, and majority and minority leaders in the General Assembly.
An evenly divided 4-4 Board of Elections with members nominated equally by the Democratic and Republican parties.
An evenly divided 4-4 Board of Elections with members nominated equally by majority and minority leaders in the General Assembly.
A 4-4-1 Board of Elections with four members nominated by each of the Republican and Democratic parties, plus a ninth unaffiliated or third party member appointed by the other eight.
With no prospect for compromise in sight after years of seeking one, lawmakers finally chose the only other alternative available to them: Move the Board of Elections to another executive office, out of the remit of the governor's office.
The current state of affairs is ridiculous and could not continue. Democrats refused to find compromise, so Republicans took the only other path available to them.
