Absentee ballot security bill moves, but concern for some over changes

Bill also adds back the last Saturday of early voting.

Posted 1:43 a.m. Jul 2, 2019 — Updated 4:49 a.m. Jul 2, 2019

Travis Fain

, WRAL statehouse reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — Voters would have to request absentee ballots with a personal letter, and the names of ballot requesters would be confidential until Election Day under an elections security bill moving at the statehouse.

The measure is an answer to last year's 9th Congressional District fiasco and the ballot harvesting operation that led to a do-over election that's still underway in North Carolina. The bill also adds another Saturday to early voting, permanently returning one of the state's more popular early voting days.

Senate Bill 683 ups the punishment for several types of ballot fraud, and it includes a number of recommendations that the State Board of Elections made after its deep dive into the 9th District controversy. But other state board recommendations were left on the cutting room floor, including one to cover the postage on absentee ballots, making it a little easier to vote and potentially deterring door-to-door operations that promise to mail a person's ballot for them.

The bill as written does away with a state-produced ballot request form that can be easily copied and distributed en masse. The state would go back to something like the procedure in place before 2013, requiring a personal note to request a ballot.

Bill sponsors said they may tinker with the language. State Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell told lawmakers Monday that voters at least need a template to know what information they must include to request ballots. She also said that some people ask for ballots so early that elections officials already have forms turned in for the 2020 elections.

9th Congressional District Coverage

The bill got its first committee hearing Monday, some four months after the state board wrapped its hearings on the 2018 9th District election. It was voted through and will likely be on the Senate floor next week before going to the House for more debate.

Legislative leadership has indicated the session is wrapping up, though they have not set a formal final date.

In addition to absentee ballot security measures, the bill mandates early voting on the final Saturday before elections. That was taken out by the General Assembly last year, though it was added back in for last year's elections, but only last year's.

This would put the last Saturday of early voting back into law long term.

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