On Tuesday evening, the North Carolina Senate passed HB 958, an extremely controversial bill that cuts early voting and opens the door to frivolous new post-election audits and challenges that seek to toss out legal votes.
North Carolinians have good reason to be wary of loosening the standards for post-election challenges, less than 2 years ago, North Carolina Republicans spent more than six months trying to steal a seat on the Supreme Court after Allison Riggs won a full term. Under the law, votes cast during early voting, which make up the majority of general election ballots, can now be challenged days after an election.
HB 958 was originally introduced in the House by Representative Sarah Stevens, now the Republican nominee for the North Carolina Supreme Court. Stevens has long been known in Raleigh as a champion for restricting the right to vote. In her nearly 20 years in the legislature, she has either authored or supported every major Republican voter suppression law and gerrymandered map, using her power to limit access to the ballot box and erode democracy.
Notably, as reported by Bryan Anderson, she has refused to commit to recusing herself from ruling on legislation that she authored or led while in the legislature if she’s elected to the state Supreme Court. That means if she wins her election this fall, she could be the deciding vote on upholding a potentially illegal law that she herself authored.
Earlier this year, Democrats in the NC General Assembly introduced judicial ethics legislation that would have prevented these sorts of conflicts from arising. Stevens refused to even give the bills a hearing in the committee she chairs.
As a co-equal branch, the Supreme Court has a responsibility to ensure that the General Assembly follows the North Carolina Constitution–a responsibility that legal experts say they have failed to enforce since Republicans took control of the Court in 2023.
