FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 12, 2024
Arlington, VA – The North Carolina General Assembly is currently considering legislation to help restore confidence in fair, transparent, and accurate elections in the Tarheel State.
If passed by both chambers with three-fifths support, Senate Bill 630 would submit a constitutional amendment to the November ballot requiring U.S. citizenship to vote in any election—an overwhelmingly obvious and popular position with North Carolina voters.
Additionally, House Bill 770 would require Cast Vote Records (CVRs) from tabulation machines be made publicly accessible, as they are in most states. A CVR is a de-identified electronic record of a voter’s choices for each ballot item—meaning it does not disclose the identity of a voter—and is electronically created by a voting system utilizing mechanical or electronic voting equipment to tabulate ballots. This bill passed the House with bipartisan support during the long session of 2023.
Both Senate Bill 630 and House Bill 770 await further consideration in the Senate Committee for Rules and Operations.
National Chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued the following statement:
“Election Integrity in North Carolina took a significant step forward last year while leaving much to be desired. Only U.S. citizens should decide the outcome of U.S. elections—one person, one vote counted fairly and equally. At the same time, if we want voters to be comfortable with the outcome of elections whether their preferred candidate succeeds at the polls or not, they must be confident that electronic tabulation systems are producing honest and accurate results. Without delay, we urge the General Assembly to pass Senate Bill 630 and House Bill 770 and to keep delivering the transparency and trust every voter deserves.”
Building on the successes of 2023, ETI urges the General Assembly to introduce additional legislation which achieves the following:
- Direct the State Board of Elections and the county boards to accomplish more aggressive voter list maintenance (including use of the EVVE look-up system) and securing HAVA-required data for 434,000 registrants who are presently missing that data on the voter list.
- Accept citizen affidavits (along with the evidence of improper registration) on invalid or illegal registrants and take those inputs for action as part of a uniform system of list maintenance.
- Ensure partisan observers are allowed to inspect and challenge ballot envelopes conveying mail-in ballots, prior to certification of the election.
- Eliminate Same Day Registration (SDR) due to its disparate treatment of registrants.
The Election Transparency Initiative, a partnership between the American Principles Project (APP) and Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, was organized to combat federal H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 legislation and advocate for state-based election reforms that voters can trust.
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