The following is my prepared public comment presented on House Bill 958, “Election Law Changes,” at the July 28 meeting of the North Carolina Senate Committee on Elections:
I am Andy Jackson with the John Locke Foundation.
I speak in favor of House Bill 958.
The bill provides numerous changes that will make our state elections better-run and more secure.
The addition of election performance audits, listed in the bill as “Post-Election Audits by State Auditor,” is especially welcome.
To be clear, performance audits are not about influencing election outcomes. As noted in the bill, performance audits are conducted after the certification of general elections, and “No findings in audits under this section shall be used as grounds to challenge the final result of an election.” These audits are designed to identify and correct systemic problems in how our elections are conducted. Three elements of the proposed audit help in that regard:
- It covers the entire election system, from voter registration to post-election ballot security.
- It is conducted by an entity outside the state board of elections.
- It includes responses from officials in the election boards mentioned in the audit.
Working with election boards and the General Assembly, these audits will foster cycles of continuous improvement in our election system.
Thank you.
My comment was originally longer, but I cut some of it because parts of HB 958 were moved to House Bill 834, “Sportsman’s Voter Act,” and the time for public comments was reduced to 90 seconds to make sure everyone who signed up could speak.
Both bills were presented to the committee as proposed committee substitutes (PCS). A PCS is essentially a friendly wholesale amendment of a bill. The PCS for HB 958 was put on the committee’s webpage the evening before the meeting.
