JAY CHAUDHURI: On Jan. 6, the General Assembly's leadership needs to make this pledge

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jay J. Chaudhuri serves as N.C. state Senate Democratic Whip and represents Wake County's 15th District.

The month and day – January 6 - remind us of the day when a mob, fueled by a defeated Donald Trump, stormed the United States Capitol building. On that deadly day in the seat of our capital city, law enforcement officers were attacked, some later died, as the mob intended to deny the certification of the election of Joe Biden as President. 

Three years later, more than 1,200 people have been arrested, and almost 900 people have either been convicted or pleaded guilty, including the leader of the hate group the Proud Boys who is serving a 22-year prison sentence. In North Carolina, at least 30 North Carolinians have been arrested, and at least 15 of them have been convicted.

This year – 2024 - reminds us what's at stake. The likely presidential nominee Donald Trump says he would pardon a number of January 6 rioters.  A likely nominee for governor Mark Robinson refuses to say “he believes the outcome was legitimate” in the 2020 presidential election. 

North Carolina state Senate Leader Phil Berger has referred to bipartisan January 6 investigations and findings as “fictional.” In 2020, the State House Speaker Tim Moore posted a photo on social media showing him next to a poster that reads “STOP THE STEAL.”

Last year, in the budget bill, the Republican dominated General Assembly defunded Electronic Registration Information Center or ERIC, a nonpartisan, well-respected organization that combats voter fraud. Over the last few years, Trump has falsely attacked ERIC, a database shared by state and local election administrators to combat voter fraud and keep voter rolls up-to-date, as an effort to increase Democratic voter turnout.

Here’s what voters should really ask going into this year:

Whether some of the state leadership’s questionable commitment to democracy will extend to their appointment of county board of elections officials (The status of this authority is currently being contested in the courts).

There’s evidence to suggest that the Big Lie of 2020 election fraud has already moved from the mob storming the Capitol to county election officials who embrace what some have referred to as “election denialism.”

In two such instances, we’ve witnessed county board of election members refusing to certify elections for specious reasons.

• In November 2020, two members of the Mecklenburg County refused to certify the election because they believed the new rules set forth by the state were not legal.
• In November 2022, two members of the Surry County Board of Elections refused to certify the election results. In the letter shared with the rest of the county board of elections, the two members attacked a federal district court judge for invalidating a voter ID law stating it had turned the state’s election law into “a grotesque and perverse sham.”

As one member stated during the meeting, “We feel the election was held according to the law that we have, but that the law is not right.” The State Board of Elections removed both county board officials.

Given the spread of the Big Lie at the county level and the new legislation that would allow the Senate leader and House speaker to appoint county board of elections officials, the General Assembly’s leadership should pledge that they will not appoint a county election official who has incited or assisted in any rebellion or insurrection against the state or the country.

They should pledge they will not appoint a county election board member who has been convicted of treason or sedition. They should pledge they will not appoint a county election board member who has threatened, coerced, or intimidated an election official.  And, they should pledge they will not appoint a county election board member who’s an election denier - those who push the Big Lie such as portraying voting machines as a source of voter fraud or mail-in voting as insecure.

The General Assembly leadership should expressly and unequivocally pledge that they will not appoint insurrectionists, seditionists, and election deniers to our county boards of elections.

If they refuse, the General Assembly’s rejection of such a pledge will continue to lead us down the darker path we’ve witnessed before. Three years ago on this exact date, we witnessed the threat to democracy at the nation’s capital. In 2024, we may very well witness threats to democracy here in North Carolina.

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