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GOP lawmakers: Absentee ballots received after Election Day shouldn't count

Saying Election Day has to mean something, Republican senators pressed Wednesday for legislation that would put new deadlines on absentee voting, including not counting any mail-in ballots that arrive after the polls close.

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By
Matthew Burns
, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor
RALEIGH, N.C. — Saying Election Day has to mean something, Republican senators pressed Wednesday for legislation that would put new deadlines on absentee voting, including not counting any mail-in ballots that arrive after the polls close.
Under Senate Bill 326, dubbed the Elections Integrity Act, people would have to request an absentee ballot by the second Tuesday before Election Day and submit it in time to arrive on or before Election Day.

Currently, people have until a week before Election Day to request an absentee ballot, and ballots that are postmarked by Election Day are counted, as long as they arrive within three days after that.

That three-day window was extended to nine days during the November elections as part of a legal settlement between the State Board of Elections and various left-leaning groups fearing people would lose out on voting during the pandemic, when more people voted by mail and mail service slowed down.

GOP lawmakers were so incensed over the settlement that they had two Republican members resign from the elections board, and they recently raked State Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell over the coals during an oversight hearing. Lawmakers suggested she changed state law to suit her own interests, and some said she should be fired.

Sen. Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus, who's sponsoring the new legislation, said it would "shore up ... leakage around the edges of our system" that he said has cast doubt on the validity of North Carolina's elections.

"This is not about who won or lost," Newton said during a Senate Elections committee hearing on the bill Wednesday. "We need our citizens to have confidence that whoever is elected deserves to be elected."

Senate Democrats pushed back that the bill provides no deadline for submitting a ballot, only for when the ballot must be received by county elections officials.

"It just says do it soon, do it early, make sure it gets there by Election Day," said Sen. Natasha Marcus, D-Mecklenburg. "We all know none of us control how fast or slow the mail is, and it concerns me greatly that this is going to create confusion in voters' minds that, 'I don't know when I have to put this in th email.'"

"We've all received something in the mail that was postmarked far earlier then when we received it," agreed Sen. Paul Lowe, D-Forsyth. "Somebody that has done what they're supposed to do in terms of getting their vote mailed off at the right time and it comes in a day late, then you're going to send them a letter back saying, 'Of no [fault] of your own, we can't accept your vote.' I think we need some real thought into that."

Newton said North Carolina has one of the longest absentee voting periods in the U.S., noting counties start sending out ballots 60 days before Election Day. There's plenty of time for people who want to vote by mail to get a ballot and send it in, he said.

"We were one of the first to get started on voting [in 2020] and one of the last in the nation to declare winners. That doesn't breed confidence," he said. "Election Day is Election Day. It needs to mean something. ... Security of our elections is paramount, and absentee voters who wait until Election Day to mail in their absentee ballot have waited too long."

Sen. Ben Clark, D-Hoke, questioned Newton's stance that security was compromised during the 2020 election, saying no evidence has been presented in recent months to support that.

One provision of the bill calls for a mobile unit to travel the state providing free photo identification cards for people to use at the polls.

North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 to require a photo ID to vote, but the requirement has been hung up over subsequent legal challenges. Newton said the mobile unit would put to rest the argument that the voter ID unfairly disenfranchises poor people.

"We'll come to their door, we'll come to their home and we'll do whatever is necessary to make sure no one is disenfranchised by the photo ID law," he said.

The bill initially set aside $5 million for the mobile unit, but that was stripped from the bill because the Senate hasn't yet passed its budget. Newton insisted that the mobile unit would be funded at whatever amount state elections officials say is necessary to carry out the effort.

The bill also would prevent state or county elections officials from accepting private donations to assist with carrying out any election.

"Elections should be brought to you by the state of North Carolina or by the federal government or by your local county. Elections should not be brought to you by Facebook," Newton said, noting voters question the impartiality of poll watchers paid by private groups with known political leanings. "We have ample money to pay for elections."

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