State legislative leaders and Gov. Roy Cooper are likely headed for another veto fight, this time over a measure that would reconfigure the state’s oversight of elections, ethics and lobbying. Lawmakers sent the bill to Cooper’s desk Tuesday.
In December 2016 during a special session, state lawmakers approved a proposal to do away with the existing State Board of Elections and replace it with the state’s ethics board, half appointed by the governor and the other half appointed by state lawmakers. That law also gave Republicans control of all local elections boards in each election year.
Cooper sued to block the law, saying it violated the separation of powers in the state constitution, and a three-judge panel agreed last month.
Senate Bill 68 is an attempt to revive some of that enjoined law,…
Cooper has already said he intends to veto the measure, calling it a GOP attempt to curtail voting rights.
“Their first attempt to gain control of elections boards through a law passed in December was recently found unconstitutional. And now the legislature is at it again, simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” Cooper wrote in a post on Medium. “The bill before the House today is another attempt to rig our state and county elections boards, doubling down on a Republican goal of reducing early voting, same-day registration and other tools that make it easier to vote.”