North Carolina
North Carolina elections at risk of chaos with Legislature’s proposed overhaul
![North Carolina elections at risk of chaos with Legislature’s proposed overhaul North Carolina elections at risk of chaos with Legislature’s proposed overhaul](https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2023-06/230626-clemmons-nc-vote-2022-ac-11076p-018a7b.jpg)
North Carolina lawmakers are considering not only a spate of new election restrictions but also a major overhaul of state and county-level election boards, alarming advocates who say some of the proposals could grind the state’s democratic apparatus to a halt.
The changes would restrict same-day registration and mail-in voting. They would also give new powers to the state Legislature, where Republican lawmakers have been emboldened by a new veto-proof majority, along with a new Republican majority on the state Supreme Court.
The three bills, which could be considered in House committee hearings as early as this week, come as North Carolina begins to institute new voter ID rules. The state Supreme Court had previously declared the photo ID requirements unconstitutional, but the new Republican majority reversed that decision earlier this year, allowing the law to be enacted.
Critics, including voting rights advocates and Democrats, said that provisions in the bills would threaten the democratic process and suppress voting. The Republican sponsors of the bills did not respond to requests for comment.
“It’s undermining democracy, period. Plain and simple,” Democratic state Rep. Allison Dahle, vice chair of the House committee that will soon consider the Senate bills, told NBC News.
Christopher Cooper, a professor and director of the Public Policy Institute at Western Carolina University, said the new election bills would add more uncertainty to a system that’s already facing big changes.
“There’s so much up in the air about what the Board of Elections is going to look like, how voter ID is going to be implemented, when our mail-in ballots are going to be allowed to be accepted,” he said. “Anybody who says they can tell you what North Carolina elections are gonna look like in 2024 is lying.”
Election board overhaul
Senate Bill 749 would overhaul state and local election boards, the five-person bodies that oversee democratic operations and certify election results.
County election boards in North Carolina are tasked with running elections — registering voters, operating polling sites and counting ballots — while the state board appoints individuals to the county boards and oversees their work, while also handling campaign finance disclosures and compliance with the law.
Currently, the state and county boards include three members of the governor’s party and two members of the other party. Nominations are made by the parties, while appointments are made by the governor.
The bill, which passed the Senate in June, would strip the governor of a role in the process. Instead, it would create an eight-person State Board of Elections, divided evenly between the two parties and appointed by party leaders in the state Legislature. County boards would be cut to four members — also evenly split along party lines and appointed by lawmakers.
The new boards are designed to restore trust in elections by eliminating partisan advantage, advocates of the bill say, but experts warn that they could lead to a nightmare scenario: deadlocked boards tasked with completing the most critical tasks in election administration. The bill identifies a few scenarios in which the Legislature could step in to resolve an impasse — such as appointing a chairman of the election board — but offers no alternatives for deadlocks on key tasks like certifying election results.
Throwing it to the Legislature would also, for now, benefit Republicans, who have a majority in both chambers — something they’re likely to preserve thanks to aggressive and effective gerrymandering throughout the state.
Meanwhile, the current Democratic governor would be cut out of the process in making appointments — and thereby controlling the balance of power on the boards.
“How do they get anything done? Are the important decisions going to be deadlocked? The consequences of that, as we are learning, could be devastating,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina.
Early voting polling sites and schedules must be approved by the unanimous support of a county election board under current law, Phillips said. If a member of the county board objects, the state board must decide. If it cannot, he said, current law says the only early voting site would be the county board of elections office.
Such a decision could have a devastating impact on turnout in large counties that might normally have more than a dozen early voting locations, he said, and leave voters in more rural, less populous counties forced to travel.
This is at least the fourth time state Republicans have tried to secure power over the State Board of Elections in North Carolina since Democrat Roy Cooper won the governor’s mansion in 2016. Two attempts to rework the election board were declared unconstitutional, while a third attempt — a constitutional amendment in 2018 — failed at the ballot box.
John Hood, a member of the board of the conservative John Locke Foundation, said he believes this latest bill is also unconstitutional.
“They assume that the North Georgia Supreme Court wouldn’t rule the same way that previous courts have ruled in this question, but I don’t think they should make that assumption,” he told NBC News.
At a press conference announcing SB 747 and SB 749, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, a Republican whose district includes Rockingham and parts of Guilford, said he believed the previous decisions on election boards by the state Supreme Court might have been wrongly decided, pointing to the dissents on past rulings. The 2018 dissents were written by Republicans judges, who recently won the majority of the court.
The majority leader’s son Phil Berger Jr. is one of the Republican judges on the court.
Poll observers
House Bill 772 allows poll watchers to “move freely” around polling sites — standing as close as 5 feet away from voters and poll workers — and listen and record many activities inside the polling site.
The bill writes a number of new powers for poll watchers into law: They can listen to conversations at the polling site, including those that identify voters and their addresses. They can take videos or photos of tabulation equipment at the start and finish of voting, and use their cell phones for note taking and communication, as long as they don’t take calls inside the voting enclosure during voting hours.
‘Two-factor authentication‘ and more
Senate Bill 747, which also passed the Senate last month, adds a spate of new restrictions to voting, including provisions that:
- Require absentee ballots to reach election officials by Election Day, eliminating a three-day grace period the state had previously allowed for postmarked ballots.
- Require people who want to register to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day to have several forms of ID — such as a driver’s license and a utility bill — with the exact same address, or to prove their identity to election officials later.
- Bar election officials from accepting outside money or in-kind donations.
- Mandate that the state election board conceive of and deploy “two-factor authentication” for absentee ballots.
Democrats say the bill includes provisions that would suppress voting, while others are ill-conceived proposals designed to appease base voters who believe former President Donald Trump’s stolen election lie.
For example, two-factor authentication is “nonsensical,” said state Sen. Natasha Marcus, a Democrat who opposed the legislation.
“We literally asked them over and over: What does that even mean? That doesn’t make any sense, you should take that out of this bill,” she said in an interview. “They couldn’t explain it, but they wouldn’t take it out either.”
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North Carolina
Tropical weather update for Wilmington: What we can expect and when
![Tropical weather update for Wilmington: What we can expect and when Tropical weather update for Wilmington: What we can expect and when](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/08/03/PPEN/74658494007-153935-5-day-cone-no-line-and-wind.png?auto=webp&crop=896,504,x0,y0&format=pjpg&width=1200)
The National Hurricane Center continues to monitor a tropical depression over Cuba. It’s expected to become a tropical storm later Saturday, bringing impacts to the Carolinas around the middle of next week.
Heavy rainfall and flooding are the primary impacts expected, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington.
“Gusty winds are also possible, but it is too early to predict specific impacts in great detail at this time,” the weather service said.
At the same time, there is the potential for heavy rainfall and some flooding associated with front expected to stall inland this weekend.
As of 11 a.m. Saturday, the center of the tropical depression, which would be name Debby if it becomes a tropical storm, was over Cuba and moving west-northwest near 15 mph. The hurricane center said a turn toward the northwest is forecast for Saturday, followed by a northward motion on Sunday and then a slower northeastwardmotion Sunday night and Monday.
Maximum sustained winds were near 35 mph. Slow strengthening is expected throughout the day Saturday. Faster strengthening is possible Sunday, with the storm nearing hurricane strength when it reaches the Florida Gulf Coast, the hurricane center said.
STORM TRACKER: Monitor the latest tropical developments here.
Here’s a look at what we can expect in the Wilmington area, according to the latest briefing from the National Weather Service in Wilmington.
Wind
The probability of tropical storm force winds has increased, especially for the South Carolina coast. The most likely time of arrival of for northeast South Carolina is Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, and for Southeastern North Carolina is during Wednesday morning.
Rain
The potential for significant rainfall exists with 8 to 12 inches possible from near Cape Fear to portions of thenortheast South Carolina coast. Flash flooding and urban flooding are possible. Some rivers, including the North Cape Fear River and the Waccamaw River, could exceed flood stage next week.
INTERACTIVE MAP: Enter your address to see hurricanes, tropical storms that have passed nearby
Marine impacts
Rough surf, including dangerous rip currents, and hazardous marine conditions are expected this weekend and will persist into the upcoming week.
Are you prepared for a hurricane?
Hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Even if this system won’t pose a threat to the NC coast, it’s never too early to be prepared.
GET READY: Are you prepared for a hurricane? Here’s what to know if you live in the Wilmington area.
North Carolina
Tropical Depression Four forms on its way to the Gulf of Mexico
As of the 5 AM update Friday, Tropical Depression Four has formed. Areas along the East Coast including North Carolina need to continue monitoring this system. Winds are at 30 MPH and gusts are up to 40 MPH. The pressure dropped to 1009 mb and is moving to the west at 16 mph. TD 4 is expected to become Tropical Storm Debby over the weekend. Tuesday night and Wednesday are First Alert Weather Days due to the threat to ENC from this system but we may need to adjust the timing as we get closer.
It’ll move slowly before escaping to the north next week. As it moves up the East Coast, there’s a lot more uncertainty about the track and threats. We expect the track of this system to change through the weekend and even into next week. If ENC sees impacts from this system, they’d likely come mid-week. The longer this system stays over land, the weaker it’ll be. It’ll have the chance to strengthen if it moves back over open water, especially if it moves over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.
The speed of this system is just as important as the strength. The quicker it moves through, the less rain piles up. If it slows down or stalls, higher rainfall amounts would be expected. Our river levels have dropped a bit since July’s wet weather, but levels are still higher than what you’d find in a typical August.
This is a reminder that we are heading into the heart of the hurricane season and to make sure your emergency supplies are ready.
Stay with WITN and WITN.com as we continue to track this system over the coming days and monitor the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.
Copyright 2024 WITN. All rights reserved.
North Carolina
Alabama man on work trip stops to buy $3 quick pick Powerball ticket, wins 6-figure jackpot
![Alabama man on work trip stops to buy quick pick Powerball ticket, wins 6-figure jackpot Alabama man on work trip stops to buy quick pick Powerball ticket, wins 6-figure jackpot](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/08/02/USAT/74654762007-screenshot-15.png?auto=webp&crop=1164,656,x0,y114&format=pjpg&width=1200)
Christopher Baker of Leesburg, Alabama was on a work trip in Hickory, North Carolina, when he thought he’d try his luck on a lotto game. It turned out to be a lucrative Powerball win.
An Alabama man on a work trip in North Carolina bought a $3 Quick Pick Powerball ticket on a whim and walked away with a six-figure windfall.
Christopher Baker of Leesburg in northeastern Alabama bought his lucky ticket in July in Hickory, North Carolina, where had been traveling for work, according to Powerball.
When the numbers were drawn, Baker says he had to do a double-take when he realized he had a $100,000 winning ticket. He had matched four white balls and the red Powerball, which would have been $50,000, but a 2X multiplier doubled the win and the disbelief.
“I just kept looking at it to make sure I was reading it right,” he laughed, according to Powerball. “I told my family but they didn’t believe me. either.”
Baker, who called his win “a shocker.” said he plans to save his winnings to buy a house.
Baker will take home $71,501 after federal and state taxes are withheld.
How to play the Powerball
In order to purchase a $2 Powerball ticket, you’ll have to visit your local convenience store, gas station or grocery store − and in a handful of states, you can purchase tickets online.
To play, you will need to pick six numbers in total to mark on your ticket. Five numbers will be white balls ranging from numbers 1 to 69. The Powerball is red and one number which is between 1 and 26.
If you want to increase your chances of winning, you can add a “Power Play” for $1 which increases the winnings for all non-jackpot prizes. This addition can multiply winnings by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, or 10X.
Players can also ask a cashier for a “Quick Pick” where a cashier will give you a computer generated numbers on a printed Powerball ticket.
Drawings are held on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights. If there’s no jackpot winner, the cash prize will increase by millions.
Where to purchase tickets
Tickets can be purchased in person at gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores. Some airport terminals may also sell lottery tickets.
You can also order tickets online through Jackpocket, the official digital lottery courier of the USA TODAY Network, in these U.S. states and territories: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Texas, Washington D.C. and West Virginia. The Jackpocket app allows you to pick your lottery game and numbers, place your order, see your ticket and collect your winnings all using your phone or home computer.
Jackpocket is the official digital lottery courier of the USA TODAY Network. Gannett may earn revenue for audience referrals to Jackpocket services. Must be 18+, 21+ in AZ and 19+ in NE. Not affiliated with any State Lottery. Gambling Problem? Call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY); 1-800-327-5050(MA); 1-877-MYLIMIT (OR); 1-800-981-0023 (PR); 1-800-GAMBLER (all others). Visit jackpocket.com/tos for full terms.
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