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'We're being gaslighted': NC Democrats say proposed new voting rules are about helping GOP, not fighting fraud

North Carolina Republicans have proposed changing many election laws ahead of 2024 that could make it harder to vote, saying they're trying to improve faith in elections. Democrats say it's a cynical ploy to throw out legitimate ballots.
Posted 2023-06-05T17:12:51+00:00 - Updated 2023-06-05T22:50:09+00:00
Dems, GOP point fingers at each other for public's lack of faith in elections system

Republicans aren't telling the truth about why they want to change North Carolina's election laws ahead of the 2024 elections, Democratic leaders said Monday.

“It’s just clearly, to me, not about any kind of election integrity,” Sen. Natasha Marcus, D-Charlotte, said during a news conference at the state legislative building. “It’s about throwing out ballots that don’t get there in time, that they think might trend against their party.”

Republican supporters of a new, wide-ranging elections bill filed last week say the proposed changes are needed to restore faith in elections. Many of the changes would add requirements that Democrats say are intentionally aimed at making it harder to vote, especially by mail.

It comes as polls show that many conservatives continue to believe former President Donald Trump's debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Just before last year’s midterm elections — in which Republicans won the open U.S. Senate seat and every statewide judicial race — a WRAL News poll found that 41% of Republican voters had little to no confidence that their votes would be counted accurately, compared to 12% of Democrats and 24% of independents.

“We cannot afford to do nothing in the face of low voter confidence,” Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, a chair of the Senate’s elections committee, said when he filed the bill last week.

But the real motive behind the changes, Democratic lawmakers said Monday, is to throw legitimate mail-in ballots in the trash in an effort to help Republicans win future elections in this closely divided swing state. In 2020, significantly more Democrats voted by mail than Republicans. That hasn’t always been the case, but the trend did continue in 2022.

"We see them continue to peddle the biggest threat to election integrity, the Big Lie," said the top Senate Democrat, Sen. Dan Blue, telling GOP leaders to stop peddling Trump's false claims if they're really concerned about restoring faith in elections.

“It's like we're being gaslighted as to the reason for this kind of legislation,” Blue said. “... This bill suppresses voting opportunities, throws out legal ballots and weakens already underfunded election boards. It is part of a coordinated effort by Trump operatives, like Cleta Mitchell, to sway elections."

Mitchell is a former 2020 lawyer for Trump. WRAL News reported last week that she met with top GOP lawmakers about the elections bill before it became public, and that much of the official agenda of a group she leads, the Election Integrity Network, is included in the bill.

Mitchell has previously told WRAL she did not draft the legislation herself but is always willing to talk with lawmakers and others about election law.

Republican leaders have downplayed her influence over their decisions and say she said she had no role in drafting the legislation.

"I can just tell you that group, Ms. Mitchell, or anyone else, has not written the bill,” Senate leader Phil Berger said last week. He didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Monday on the Democratic lawmakers' criticisms of the bill.

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