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North Carolina’s elections board cries for help amid layoffs, increasing demands

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North Carolina’s elections board cries for help amid layoffs, increasing demands


Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

Diminishing state and federal funds have pressured North Carolina’s state elections board to put off dozens of workers within the final two years, it stated in a letter to the state’s congressional delegation Thursday.

Why it issues: The company is working with fewer folks because it faces growing calls for. As calls for on the company have climbed, Within the final two years alone, it misplaced almost 30 workers that assist the company guarantee elections are honest and safe and legal guidelines that assist it do which might be upheld.

  • The letter additionally comes because the company is wrapping up an election 12 months wherein it acquired an “unmanageable” variety of public information requests — greater than triple what it acquired in 2020.
  • “The challenges in managing statewide elections haven’t been decreased since 2020; in some ways, they’ve expanded,” ​​state elections director Karen Brinson Bell stated within the letter. “North Carolina depends on federal HAVA funds and requires enhanced funding now greater than ever.”

Driving the information: The letter, obtained by Axios, urges the state’s 15 delegates to assist the Assist America Vote Act Election Safety grant’s inclusion in a 2023 spending bundle stalled within the U.S. Home.

  • The measure would offer funds that assist election directors assure that elections are “safe and dependable,” Brinson Bell stated.

Context: North Carolina’s State Board of Elections is tasked with managing elections, even because the board is “dealing with more and more subtle cybersecurity threats,” Brinson Bell stated.

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  • It is also chargeable for making certain candidates and committees adjust to marketing campaign finance legal guidelines, registering voters and sustaining voter rolls and juggling a rise in public information requests.

By the numbers: As of Dec. 12, the board had acquired 326 information requests this 12 months, of which no less than 50 had been filed by people who do not reside in North Carolina.

  • 229 requests had been filed in 2021.
  • Roughly 100 had been filed in 2020, the board instructed Axios.



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North Carolina

North Carolina's GOP-controlled House overrides Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's vetoes

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North Carolina's GOP-controlled House overrides Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's vetoes


RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Republican-led House quickly overrode three of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes on Wednesday.

The House votes, largely along party lines, sent the overrides to the Senate, which does not meet this week. Veto overrides require supermajorities from both legislative chambers to become law. Since gaining supermajorities last year, GOP lawmakers have blocked all of Cooper’s vetoes.

The first bill allows the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles to issue title certificates for all-terrain and utility vehicles, and expands the types of roads accessible for modified utility vehicles to include all roads with speed limits of 55 mph or less. Cooper said in his veto statement that the law would endanger people on state highways because off-road vehicles don’t have as many safety features.

The second piece of legislation changes several laws involving tenancy, notaries and small claims court. What mostly prompted Cooper’s veto was a prohibition against local ordinances that aim to stop landlords from denying tenancy to people whose rent money comes mostly from federal housing assistance programs.

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The last bill, among other things, blocks state agencies from taking payments in central bank digital currency, which is similar to cryptocurrencies, but with value determined by a country’s central bank. In the U.S., the Federal Reserve would be liable for the currency’s value, and the agency is still studying whether it can manage its risks to the cost and availability of credit, the safety and stability of the financial system, and the efficacy of monetary policy.

Cooper called the legislation “premature, vague and reactionary,” and urged the Legislature to wait to see how it works before passing laws to restrict it.

There are two more vetoes that still require action from both chambers. Lawmakers are scheduled to reconvene in early September.





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Most NC schools don’t have carbon monoxide detectors in classrooms

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Most NC schools don’t have carbon monoxide detectors in classrooms


Thousands of school buildings in North Carolina, including many in Wake County, do not have carbon monoxide detectors.

On Wednesday, state schools leaders will look at how to address that. Talks are happening inside the state education building about ways to keep your student safe.

On Wednesday, we’ll get a breakdown of what it would take to install carbon monoxide detectors in schools.

State education leaders will be reviewing a report Wednesday afternoon. It shows most North Carolina schools don’t have them.

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In Wake County, about 200 school buildings don’t have the devices. That’s more than a third of school buildings in the county. It would cost about $2.1 million to get them installed. It would cost $40 million to install them in schools across the state.

Nikki James Zellner with CO Safe Schools said not having these detectors puts children at risk.

“We think that we’re protected when we’re going into these establishments,” she said. “We think that our children are protected, but in reality, we’re relying on institutional standards that haven’t really been updated in a significant amount of time.”



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North Carolina governor says Harris 'has a lot of great options' for running mate

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North Carolina governor says Harris 'has a lot of great options' for running mate


SUPPLY, N.C. — A day after confirming he wouldn’t be a candidate for Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday at a public event that he’s excited that Democrats “have a lot of great options for her to choose from.”

Speaking in coastal Brunswick County with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan to celebrate federal funding for land conservation, Cooper reiterated his Monday message by saying “this was not the right time for our state or for me to potentially be on a national ticket.”

Cooper, barred by term limits from seeking reelection this year, had been among roughly a dozen potential contenders that Harris’ team was initially looking at for a vice presidential pick. He’s been a surrogate for President Joe Biden’s reelection bid and now for Harris.

“I am going to work every day to see that she is elected,” Cooper told WECT-TV. “I believe that she will win, and I look forward to this campaign because she has the right message and she is the right person for this country.”

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In making his decision, Cooper confirmed Tuesday that he was concerned in part about what Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson could do if he left the state to campaign as part of the Democratic ticket. The state constitution says that “during the absence of the Governor from the State … the Lieutenant Governor shall be Acting Governor.” Robinson is running for governor this fall.

“We had concerns that he would try to seize the limelight because there would be a lot, if I were the vice presidential candidate, on him, and that would be a real distraction to the presidential campaign,” Cooper said.

Cooper pointed to when he traveled to Japan last fall on an economic development trip. As acting governor at the time, Robinson held a news conference during his absence to announce he had issued a “NC Solidarity with Israel Week” proclamation after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack inside the country.

Cooper also said Tuesday that he informed Harris’ campaign “early in the process” that he would not be a candidate, but that he didn’t reveal publicly that decision at first so as not to dampen enthusiasm for Harris within the party.

“My name had already been prominently put into the media and so I did not want to cause any problems for her or to slow her great momentum,” he told WRAL-TV while in Supply, located about 160 miles (258 kilometers) south of Raleigh. Cooper said he announced his decision when “there had begun to be a lot of speculation about the fact that I was not going to be in the pool of candidates, and in order to avoid the distraction of the speculation.”

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Tuesday’s event at Green Swamp Preserve celebrated a $421 million grant for projects in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland to reduce climate pollution. The money will be used to preserve, enhance or restore coastal habitats, forests and farmland, Cooper’s office said.



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