With all the bad ideas floated by Republicans in their attempt to strip power from the executive branch, the restructuring of the State Board of Elections and Ethics Commission has gotten less attention. The new law, which is being contested in court, would combine the SBOE and Ethics Commission and replace the current five-member board of elections with an eight-member board and replace three-member county boards with four member boards. Currently, the party of the Governor gets to appoint a majority of the board members—three on the SBOE and two on county boards. Under the new system, boards would be split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.
Republicans claim it’s a bipartisan measure, but that’s not true. Democrats had no input into the bill and its goal is less about fairness than gumming up the system to prevent oversight of elections and ethics. The new bill requires six members’ support for any substantive action like issuing subpoenas. Seventy-five percent is a very high bar to get anything done.
The Federal Election Commission has a similar six-member structure and is known for its lack of oversight. As Wake County Elections Board member Mark Ezzell calls, it’s a “toothless tiger.” A report released by FEC member Ann Ravel this week shows the problems with the system and gives North Carolinians a view of what the state could be facing.
Ravel notes that “A bloc of three Commissioners routinely thwarts, obstructs, and delays action on the very campaign finance laws its members were appointed to administer.” According to her report, almost one-third of all substantive matters resulted in a deadlocked decision. Rules to increase disclosure in the wake of the Citizens United decision have been blocked. And the bloc of three members has prevented investigations into campaign finance violations.
At a time when trust in our institutions is suffering, the GOP wants to reduce oversight of ethics and elections. Ironically, the party that’s so sure we have rampant voter fraud is hamstringing the body charged with preventing and investigating it. The move calls into question the motives of Republicans who seem more interested in rigging elections than restoring confidence. The old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies here.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Ebrun’s a progressive? Whodathunkit?
Yeah, right. There’s just something undemocratic and partisan by having an equal number of Democrats ands Republicans overseeing state elections. Its undemocratic because liberals won’t have a majority to push through decisions and policies that support Democrat candidates. LOL
It’s all part of the concerted GOP efforts –at the national and state levels– to undermine our institutions and our watchdog agencies so as to best advance political ideological aims and purposes.
It is that, and just more voter suppression by the white supremacist party. republicans will do anything but the right thing in order to control the population