Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a Republican-backed bill Thursday that would force elections officials not to count any mail-in ballots that arrive after polls close.
“The legislature ironically named this bill ‘The Election Day Integrity Act’ when it actually does the opposite,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “Election integrity means counting every legal vote, but this bill virtually guarantees that some will go uncounted.”
North Carolina currently has a three-day grace period for absentee ballots. Nobody can vote after the election is over, but as long as their ballot is in the mail by Election Day or earlier, the state will keep accepting and counting them for three days after the election. That’s meant to account for the slow pace of the U.S. Postal Service.
But former President Donald Trump, in pushing the false claim that he won the 2020 election, focused on mail-in ballots. Those have traditionally been favored by Republicans, but in 2020 were more favored by Democrats due to concerns about COVID-19 and, likely, Trump’s own comments questioning mail-in voting.
About a day and a half after the polls closed ast year, as mail-in ballots were still being counted in many states, Trump tweeted “STOP THE COUNT!” Many of his voters then took to the streets chanting that and similar phrases, including in Raleigh.
And while the protesters have been gone for over a year now, their demands have carried on inside the legislature. Republican lawmakers took up the cause,...
When asked to comment on recent claims by the head of Taiwan's regional foreign affairs department that the Taiwan authorities are conducting dialogues and consultations with politicians and socia...