“Dan Forest asks Trump administration to investigate NC Democrats over mail-in voting”

News and Observer:

President Donald Trump’s administration should launch an investigation into a proposed change in North Carolina’s vote-by-mail rules, N.C. Lt. Gov. Dan Forest said Thursday.

Forest, a Republican like Trump, wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr asking him to look into potential changes the N.C. State Board of Elections voted on earlier this week, to settle a lawsuit against the state.

Barr, a close Trump ally, has frequently been accused of politicizing the U.S. Department of Justice to help Trump’s re-election chances. Forest’s letter makes similar accusations, but against Democrats in North Carolina.

He said N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein, who is a Democrat,worked with the Democrat-led elections board and the liberal-leaning challengers in the lawsuit “to enact, without the consent of the legislature, wholesale changes to the absentee ballot laws of North Carolina.”…

N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican from Rockingham County, said Democrats supported the lawsuit settlement because they “have repeatedly tried to enact these policies for months. They lost when the legislature rejected them almost unanimously; they lost when a federal judge rejected them; they lost when a state court rejected them..”

Stein strongly rejected such accusations, saying in a written statement to The News & Observer that “I am committed to ensuring that all eligible voters in North Carolina are confident in the knowledge that they can vote easily and safely by mail or in person — and that the candidate who wins the most votes will prevail.”

He accused Republicans of trying to create confusion and mistrust in the elections.

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