The State Board of Elections on Thursday released a list of legislative recommendations to help make voting in North Carolina safe and accessible in 2020, despite the ongoing threat of COVID-19.
Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, made the recommendations Thursday in a letter to Governor Roy Cooper, N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore, N.C. Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger and other state legislators.
The recommendations center around three main themes:
- Modifying the absentee by-mail voting process to ensure it is simple and accessible to North Carolina voters, and making changes designed to help county boards of elections process a significant increase in by-mail ballots;
- Ensuring that an adequate number of poll workers are available to work at early voting sites and Election Day polling places; and
- Providing funding to help cover costs associated with necessary changes in elections processes, the anticipated increase in by-mail voting, the sterilization and ongoing cleaning of polling places and voting equipment, and proper protections for poll workers and voters.