The relentless assault on democracy

Ever since they took control of the legislature, Republicans have been stacking the deck in elections.

Republicans’ assault on democracy has been relentless. It began with the “monster voter suppression bill” that was struck down by the courts for targeting African Americans with surgical precision. It culminated with the GOP taking control of the State Board of Elections and turning it into a partisan tool to rig elections.

To aid in that effort, Republicans in the legislature have introduced a new, massive bill that would further politicize the SBOE and give the auditor more power to investigate elections. The bill gives the state board 25 new political appointees. When State Auditor Dave Boliek had the opportunity to build confidence in the agency by hiring election professionals, he instead appointed political hacks.

The chair of the State Board of Elections is the former president of the Civitas Institute, who oversaw a massive independent expenditure operation to support Republicans running for the state legislature. The executive director of the SBOE is a former counsel to two Republican House Speakers. They also hired the former executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party to serve as a liaison between the state board of elections and the county boards. They turned the agency in charge of ensuring free and fair elections into a partisan tool for the party that has consistently fought to undermine them.

The bill appears to be at least partially in response to last year’s attempt by Jefferson Griffin and the GOP to steal a Supreme Court election with an assist from the GOP-controlled state Supreme Court. They tried to change the rules of the election after the fact. Fortunately, a Trump-appointed federal judge rejected the move with a stinging and embarrassing rebuke, saying the GOP tried to “change the rules of the game after it had been played.”

At the same time Griffin was trying to undermine democracy, the Republican legislature passed a bill to shift control of the State Board of Elections from the governor’s office, where it has been for decades, to the auditor’s office controlled by Republican Boliek. The GOP had been trying to control the board for years. A similar measure was rejected by the previous Supreme Court just a few years earlier. Another attempt was rejected by voters.

The GOP was finally successful with an assist from the partisan Supreme Court, which essentially reversed the earlier ruling and left control of the SBOE up to the whims of the legislature. If Democrats win the auditor’s office in 2028, you can bet the gerrymandered Republicans will move the office again. Besides damaging democracy, the ruling is just bad government and clearly contrary to the intent of the state Constitution.

Republicans are going to use the State Board of Elections for partisan gain and really aren’t trying to hide their intentions. They’ve already pressured a local board of elections to move an early voting site to reduce voting by students. Adding 25 political appointees — read operatives — to the state board just invites skepticism about the fairness of the electoral process.

Republicans know that North Carolina is trending slowly Democratic. They might be able to hold control of the legislature through heavily gerrymandered districts for a while, but they will have an increasingly difficult time winning statewide, especially once Trump leaves the political stage. They’ve opted to undermine the democratic process to keep control.