The North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) has proposed changes to the recount process. I offered a public comment at an SBE hearing on June 8. The prepared text of that comment is below:
I am Andy Jackson with the John Locke Foundation. I support the proposed rules changes for recounts.
The changes to 0106 will make it easier for county boards to appoint unaffiliated or third-party members to the teams conducting recounts while maintaining the requirement that board members from both parties must agree to those appointments. They add an additional safeguard by requiring that at least one person from each major party be appointed to each team.
The proposal for 0107 officially streamlines the first machine recount by specifying when officials, in addition to bipartisan team members, may assist in the recount and by allowing election boards to delegate the declaration of the recount’s completion while assuring that a machine recount shall not be declared completed until the results have been reported to the State Board.
Along with other proposals, these changes will clarify and streamline the recount process, helping reinforce public confidence in the results of close elections in North Carolina.
Here is a link to the full text of the proposed recount rules. Here is how you can provide a public comment to the SBE on the proposals through Tuesday, July 14 by any of the methods below:
- Online on the Public Comment Portal: Recount Rules
- Email: [email protected] (Specify that you are commenting on the recount rules
- Mail: Attn: Rulemaking Coordinator, P.O. Box 27255, Raleigh, NC 27611-7255 (Specify that you are commenting on the recount rules.)
