Latest news with #DaveBoliek
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republican majorities named to North Carolina's 100 local election boards
Republicans now hold majorities on all of North Carolina's 100 county election boards, flipping the partisan control of these local authorities for the first time since 2016. The State Board of Elections and State Auditor Dave Boliek appointed a new slate of county election officials Tuesday, giving the GOP a 3-2 majority on each board. The newly Republican state board also approved a plan seeking to collect additional registration information from nearly 200,000 voters, some of whom were challenged in the state's chaotic six-month legal battle over the results of the 2024 Supreme Court race. President Donald Trump's administration has sued the state demanding that it address the missing information. Tuesday's appointments are the latest step in the overhaul of North Carolina's election apparatus, per legislation passed in the final days of Republicans' supermajority in the General Assembly last year. Lawmakers stripped Democratic Gov. Josh Stein of his appointments to the State Board of Elections and transferred them to Boliek, a Republican. A trial court initially struck down this transfer as unconstitutional, noting that it broke with over a century of precedent. The state's Republican-controlled appellate courts, however, reversed the lower ruling and allowed the law to take effect. Auditor Dave Boliek appointed a 3-2 Republican majority to the state board, which quickly voted to oust its longtime director and replace her with a lawyer who has worked for the state's top legislative leaders. Replacing county election board members was the next step in the law's implementation. Previously, the state board selected two Republicans and two Democrats for each county board from a list submitted by the local political parties. The governor then appointed a chair to each board, which determined the partisan majority. Now, that chair appointment power resides with the auditor, Boliek, who selected a slate of Republicans to lead the boards. Among Boliek's appointees is Linda Rebuck, who will chair the Henderson County Board of Elections. Last year, Rebuck was reprimanded by the State Board of Elections for spreading 'false and misleading statements' to state lawmakers and advocating for Republicans to win the 2024 elections. Asked why Rebuck was selected, a spokesperson for Boliek said: 'Chairs were picked based on conversations with a variety of stakeholders across the state and careful deliberation. It's our belief that the appointed chairs will execute their management of county boards of elections to the best of their ability, and in accordance with state and federal laws and state board guidance.' Also at Tuesday's meeting, the state board unanimously approved a multi-step plan to collect missing voter registration information from roughly 194,000 voters. Beginning with a series of mailers this summer, the board will ask these voters to provide either a driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number to complete the state's records. The missing information, which is required by the national Help America Vote Act, has sparked numerous legal challenges, including the recent lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice. The HAVA information also formed the basis for Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin's main challenge of his 2024 election loss, in which he argued that voters who lacked these numbers should have their votes thrown out. The plan approved Tuesday will begin this summer by sending a series of mailers to voters who lack the required information in the state's database. Of those affected voters, 98,000 will have to cast provisional ballots in future elections until they provide the information. That triggers a special review of each ballot after Election Day. However, Executive Director Sam Hayes noted that records show that another 96,000 of the affected voters complied with HAVA when they registered to vote, even though the state does not have a driver's license or Social Security number on file for them. This could be due to a matching problem with national databases that isn't the fault of voters, he said. Those voters will be able to vote regularly, though the board will continue to try to collect the missing information from them. Meanwhile, county boards of elections will review their own records to determine if they already have the missing information, but hadn't entered it into the state's databases.
Axios
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Axios
How North Carolina's new top watchdog is amassing power
Just a few weeks after North Carolina voters elected the first Republican to serve as state auditor in 15 years, North Carolina's GOP-controlled General Assembly jumped at the opportunity, passing into law legislation that gave Dave Boliek the power to appoint the state's Board of Elections. Why it matters: The move was part of a broader effort to consolidate Republican power in the state, tipping control of the elections board and thus giving the GOP more authority over the state's electoral process. But lawmakers haven't stopped there. For months, they've been moving to make Boliek far more powerful than auditors past. Driving the news: In Boliek's first six months in office, legislative Republicans have introduced several bills that would expand his office's authority. They've proposed giving him more employees, a bigger budget and the authority to investigate some nonprofits and private businesses and make recommendations on ways to cut state spending. The big picture: Republicans' effort to grant Boliek more power comes at a moment when Republicans — both in Washington and in North Carolina — have zeroed in on making all levels of government more efficient at any cost. As the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency has sought to slash federal spending, GOP lawmakers in North Carolina have set their sights on doing the same at a state level, with the now-Republican state auditor as a key vehicle. North Carolina Republicans have also mirrored the national party's efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, including by proposing legislation that would require that the auditor regularly audit agencies to ensure they're not using DEI policies. What they're saying:"We want our state agencies to work as hard as the citizens that fund them," Senate leader Phil Berger, who sponsored a bill that would give Boliek more power, said in a statement in March. "If they won't hold themselves accountable, then the General Assembly will." The latest: Measures broadening the auditor's scope made their way into the state Senate's budget proposal, which the chamber unveiled in April. Now, the legislature's two chambers are in the early stages of budget negotiations with a goal of passing a spending plan by the end of this month. Should the Senate's proposal, known as the Division of Accountability, Value and Efficiency (DAVE) Act, make it into the final budget package, Boliek is likely to amass even more power in the coming months. Under the proposal, the auditor would be empowered to make recommendations on state jobs that should be eliminated. The DAVE division would dissolve at the end of 2028. What they're saying: "This bill strikes me as not really getting at efficiency, but getting at really kind of a political approach to some of the work that we're here to do," Democratic state Sen. Lisa Grafstein said in committee in April, per the News & Observer. State of play: As it stands, several entities already exist to ensure North Carolina's government functions efficiently. One of them is the state auditor, who, as the state's top watchdog, has long been tasked with monitoring both the use of taxpayer dollars and the elimination of waste, fraud and abuse. The office audits more than $100 billion in assets and liabilities, per the auditor's website. Auditors past have earned the respect of Democrats and Republicans alike for tackling the job without favoring members of the same political party. The intrigue: As evidenced by legislation they've passed in recent months, North Carolina lawmakers believe that the auditor's office could be doing more, however. Boliek believes that, too. "I felt early on —and still feel — that this office has been underutilized in the sense of its duties and responsibilities as a watchdog and as a public-facing agency," Boliek told Axios last month. He's also argued that much of the legislation under consideration merely "formalizes the work that needs to be done" in his office, WRAL reported in April. Zoom in: Boliek, who has vowed to approach his job in a nonpartisan way as previous auditors have, is also on a mission to transform his office from within. "There a new energy in the office and a new vision for not only doing audits, but for being a true watchdog for the people of North Carolina, and to inform the public in an impactful way and get some real results on behalf of the people of North Carolina," Boliek said. The other side: At least one Republican has said that one of the proposals to grant the auditor more power should be "tightened up."
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NC high court denies Stein request, allows GOP takeover of state elections board
In a divided vote, the Republican-majority North Carolina Supreme Court late Friday denied Democratic Gov. Josh Stein's request to block new appointments to the State Board of Elections while Stein's lawsuit challenging the legality of the appointments proceeds. The ruling means that appointments to the board by State Auditor Dave Boliek, a Republican, are allowed to stand pending the lawsuit, which will likely take months to resolve. The Associated Press first reported the high court's ruling. Stein's lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of a law enacted by the GOP-dominated General Assembly last year that shifted authority for appointments to the elections board from Stein to Boliek. On April 30, the North Carolina Court of Appeals allowed the law to take effect, reversing the order of a lower court that ruled the law unconstitutional, The News & Observer reported at the time. On May 1, Boliek made appointments to the Elections Board that shifted the board from a 3-2 Democratic majority to a 3-2 GOP control. In its ruling Friday, the majority on the N.C. Supreme Court wrote that 'the Court of Appeals' ruling was not manifestly unsupported by reason or so arbitrary that it could not have been the result of a reasoned decision.' In her dissenting opinion, Associate Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat, wrote that the Supreme Court majority 'is rewriting precedent and creating an explanation for an unexplained Court of Appeals order in an effort to upend 125-years status quo for the North Carolina State Board of Elections while this case winds its way through the courts.' Friday's ruling also lets Boliek proceed with choosing chairpersons of the 100 county election boards beginning in late June.
Toronto Star
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Star
North Carolina's high court says elections board shift can continue while appeals carry on
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A divided North Carolina Supreme Court confirmed Friday that it was OK for a new law that shifted the power to appoint State Board of Elections members away from the Democratic governor to start being enforced earlier this month, even as the law's constitutionality is deliberated. The Republican majority on the court declined or dismissed requests that Gov. Josh Stein made three weeks ago to block for now the enforcement of the law approved last year by the GOP-controlled General Assembly shifting authority to Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek.
Toronto Star
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Star
North Carolina's high court says elections board shift can continue while governor appeals
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A divided North Carolina Supreme Court confirmed Friday that it was OK for a new law that shifted the power to appoint State Board of Elections members away from the Democratic governor to have taken effect earlier this month, even as the law's constitutionality is deliberated. The Republican majority on the court declined or dismissed requests that Gov. Josh Stein made three weeks ago to block for now the enforcement of the law approved last year by the Republican-controlled General Assembly shifting authority to GOP State Auditor Dave Boliek.
