Legislators rush back to Raleigh to debate November ballot

Mark Barrett | The Citizen-Times

RALEIGH – The General Assembly returned to the capital Tuesday for a surprise special session as part of an effort by its Republican majority to keep a Democrat-dominated committee from shaping the November ballot.

GOP legislators called the session Monday after a leading Republican, Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, raised concerns last week about who will write titles to go on the ballot above each of the six constitutional amendments to be put before voters Nov. 6.

That job is supposed to be done by a three-member panel that includes Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Attorney General Josh Stein, both Democrats. But Republican lawmakers say they don’t trust the panel to avoid outside pressure to politicize the titles.

Gov. Roy Cooper and other Democrats argue Republicans just want to conceal what exactly the amendments would do.

Legislators were also considering a proposal to keep a former Democrat from running for a slot on the state Supreme Court as a Republican.

Republican lawmakers used a procedural tool that requires signatures of three-fifths of House and Senate members to convene their own special session, rather than needing Cooper to call it.

Some of the amendments would shift powers from Cooper to the General Assembly and revive a voter ID law. Legislators approved putting them on the ballot last month.

The House approved the Lewis bill to remove the requirements for descriptions and just put the words "Constitutional Amendment" above each referendum question. The legislature approved the language of the questions when it voted to put them on the ballot.

Each question briefly describes what the effect of the constitutional amendment would be, although Democrats argue that the language for some is misleading. Further complicating matters, the General Assembly has not approved legislation to put the amendments into effect, but would do that after the November election but before new legislators take office in January.

That means, for example, that North Carolinians will be asked to decide whether to require photo identification to vote without knowing what forms of photo ID would be considered valid.

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Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, told the House that the three-member committee was "slow-playing" their job, creating a situation in which there might not be time for legislators to change the language before it is placed on ballots.

"If the committee was going to simply do the job ... that could have been done weeks ago," he said.

Marshall said the committee has been soliciting public comment and said she was unaware of any political pressure on it. She said the descriptions would have been written in plenty of time.

Rep. Darren Jackson, D-Wake, called the Republican move "a power grab to take power away from elected officials who were elected to do this job."

House Speaker Tim Moore said before the session that fellow Republicans feared the commission might approve titles that put some the proposed amendments in a disparaging light.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about what I would believe and what a lot of my colleagues believe is to misrepresent and politicize something that should be purely administrative,” Moore told reporters. “So what we’re looking to do is coming back in and simply spelling out what the language would be.”

Republican Senate leader Phil Berger also said he supported the session and “efforts to ensure that voters get accurate descriptions of these extremely popular amendments.”

GOP leaders, however, have provided no examples of such pressure. Democrats and their allies have blasted the amendments and the possible session since the idea surfaced over the weekend. Republicans are changing the rules to “rig the system” and suit their political needs, state Democratic Party Executive Director Kimberly Reynolds said.

“Instead of allowing an open and transparent process, Republicans are calling a special session to circumvent this board’s work and prevent voters from seeing accurate descriptions of these amendments,” Cooper spokesman Ford Porter said in a release

Two of the amendments, if approved, would erode Cooper’s powers. One would curb his ability to fill judicial vacancies with his favored candidates and another would specify that the legislature controls the appointments and duties of any board or commission it creates. Others would revive a photo ID mandate to vote and lower the maximum income tax rate lawmakers could approve.

Another two amendments would expand crime victims’ rights and enshrine the right to hunt and fish in the state constitution.

Marshall, who has led the Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission for over 20 years, said in an interview that Republican claims of political pressure placed upon the panel are unfounded, and the GOP’s session is “insulting” to the panel’s work.

Republicans hope some of the amendments bring out conservative voters at a time when they are trying to avoid losing their veto-proof House and Senate majorities.



Any legislation would be sent to Cooper. If he vetoes it, the General Assembly would have an opportunity to override.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.