Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper signed a wide-ranging elections bill into law Friday, HB 1169. It passed the N.C. General Assembly with the support of every Republican and most Democrats. In addition to its other changes listed above, the bill also includes extra money for increased cybersecurity, among other things….
Supporters of the bill had cited the long lines to vote recently in Georgia and Wisconsin that have made national news, causing hours-long waits for people trying to vote in person, as one reason to increase election spending here — in addition to making it easier to request, use and track absentee mail-in ballots.
The changes, however, will only apply to the 2020 elections . Officials believe that this year the state could see nearly half its votes cast by mail….
The Democrats who did oppose the bill said they didn’t like an unrelated section, tweaking the state’s controversial voter ID law. That law has been temporarily blocked from going into place, after two different courts ruled that it appears the legislature passed it in 2018 with racist motivations to target Black voters.
But the court cases aren’t over yet, and if voter ID’s Republican supporters win in court in the next few months, it’s possible that voters could be required to show ID at the polls.