06/13/2026
So much for not all citizens are equal in North Carolina.
On Friday evening, the Republican leaders of North Carolina's state legislature dropped a big, unannounced, 36-page omnibus bill stuffed to the brim with new voting restrictions and elections changes.
This thing is a voter suppression wishlist. Just some of its major provisions:
š Total ban on encouraging voter turnout: State and county board members are prohibited from any public statement "encouraging or promoting voter turnout in any election"
š Grants the Republican State Auditor total discretion to audit all machines, county offices and personnel involved in any election
š Reduces campaign finance transparency: the bill significantly raises the dollar thresholds for required reporting of dark money contributions or media expenditures, waiving reporting for the rest
š Requires voters to register with a political party a full year before voting in that party's primary election (up from 90 days)
š Total ban on any ranked-choice voting in any primary or general election statewide
š Strips some overseas voters of their eligibility to vote in any state elections
š Partisan staffing: changes up to 25 professional staff at the State Board of Elections from career civil staff to partisan political appointees
š Bans paid petition gathering
This bill just dropped last night and may not be online yet (they like to take their time). We got a full draft of the bill here:https://carolinaforward.org/images/hb-958-pcs.pdf
