Within minutes of passing into law Tuesday, a controversial and wide-ranging change to elections laws led to North Carolina being sued at least twice. A prominent Democratic attorney sued North Carolina on behalf of multiple voting rights groups Tuesday. So did national Democratic Party, along with its state chapter. The controversial legislation, Senate Bill 747, became law after Republican lawmakers voted to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of the bill. The override passed with every Republican in favor, and every Democrat opposed.
It contains numerous changes to elections laws, particularly focused on loosening the rules governing partisan poll observers and tightening the rules for mail-in voting. When Cooper vetoed it he said that it "has nothing to do with election security and everything to do with Republicans maintaining and keeping power," noting that it's specifically written to target young voters and non-white voters.
Republicans have defended the law as being needed to improve voters' confidence in elections — and have accused Democrats of over-exaggerating how many ballots will have to be thrown out in future elections.
"The allegations against the bill are just one more example of why the bill is needed," said Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke, on Tuesday.
Spokespeople for Republican House Speaker Tim Moore and Republican Senate leader Phil Berger didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about details of the lawsuit. WRAL previously reported that many of the specific changes in the new law were pushed, for months, by a group led by Cleta Mitchell, who was former President Donald Trump's attorney during his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Mitchell personally met with the bill's Republican sponsors in the Senate before they filed it, although GOP leaders later said she didn't influence their actions.
Subscribe to WRAL:
[ Ссылка ]
Follow WRAL:
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
IG: [ Ссылка ]
About WRAL-TV:
WRAL is your Raleigh, North Carolina news source. Check out our videos for the latest news in Raleigh, local sports, Raleigh weather, and more at [ Ссылка ]
#localnews #northcarolina #breakingnews #live
