Bill requiring legislative approval of legal settlements headed to governor

In a 58-47 party-line vote, the House gave final approval to Senate Bill 360 on Wednesday. The measure states that, if the state's top lawmakers are part of a lawsuit, either as defendants or interveners, it can't be settled without their permission.

The bill was drafted in response to a settlement last fall that changed the state's absentee ballot rules, allowing a later deadline for mailed ballots and ballots to be accepted without a witness signature.

Although lawmakers considered the changes last summer, expecting a spike in absentee voting during the pandemic, they rejected them. But after left-leaning groups and attorneys with connections to the Democratic Party sued the State Board of Elections over the state's rules for mailed ballots, the state Attorney General's Office settled the lawsuit.

All five members of the elections board voted in favor of the settlement, but the two Republican members resigned after GOP legislative leaders said they were blindsided by the deal.

Rep. Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, said during Wednesday's House debate that the challenge to the state's absentee ballot rules essentially became "a friendly lawsuit" because it was filed by Democratic lawyers represented the plaintiffs, Democrats held the majority on the State Board of Elections and Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein's office represented the state.

Republican lawmakers should have been given the chance to review the deal and either sign off or reject it, Hall said, arguing that it was improper to "change the rules in the middle of an election."

"It throws doubt on to our elections, and it creates chaos," he said. "Let a court decide [a dispute], let a jury decide or a judge. Don't let it be decided in a scam settlement that changes the rules that [the legislature] has passed."

Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, said the bill would essentially change the rules for the attorney general. The state constitution gives that office the authority to handle lawsuits against the state, she noted, and any change to that authority should be made by voters through a constitutional amendment, not the General Assembly.

"The laws as they are work, and they work well," Morey said, adding that, without a settlement last fall, litigation over the absentee ballot rules would have gone on past the election. "If you don't like what our attorney general is doing in settling cases that he's constitutionally obligated to do, then run for attorney general."

Spokesman Nazneen Ahmed said the Attorney General's Office is disappointed with the bill's passage.

"We continue to believe that this legislation is unwise and unconstitutional," Ahmed said in an email to WRAL News.

Cooper has 10 days to sign or veto the bill or allow it to become law without his signature. He has vetoed other attempts to limit the powers of the executive branch.

A second bill that would limit the governor's powers in a long-running emergency was pulled from the House's floor calendar on Wednesday and reset for a Sept. 23 vote.