The House approved Senate Bill 4 67-23, and sent it to the Senate for final approval. The Senate signed off on it in the early afternoon and sent it to the governor. Gov. Pat McCrory signed the bill a short time later….
Democrats disputed the Republican claims that SB4 would create a bipartisan commission merging the current State Board of Elections, State Ethics Commission and the lobbying functions of the Secretary of State’s office.
Democrats said it couldn’t be called bipartisan because they weren’t involved in creating the proposal. Republicans call it bipartisan because it would create a state board and county election boards comprised of members equally split between the parties. It would also deprive the incoming Democratic administration of control of those boards; currently, the administration can appoint three of the five state members and two of the three members on each county board.
I expect Voting Rights Act litigation against this one.