Raleigh, N.C. – State House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) released a statement Thursday saying the resignation of two members of the State Board of Elections raises more serious questions about the appearance of collusion to weaken North Carolina election laws among the Governor, Attorney General, and partisan attorneys from the national Democratic Party.
The resigning State Board of Elections members said they felt misled by the state attorney general’s office and staff when they agreed to a settlement weakening absentee ballot laws.
Speaker Moore has said the so-called settlement, which excluded lawmakers despite their status as intervening parties in the case, would “gut the integrity” of the Presidential election and was an “utterly lawless” action taken as ballots are already being cast.
The “settlement” comes after the State Board of Elections previously tried to unilaterally rewrite absentee ballot laws in May, but was unanimously rejected by the North Carolina Rules Review Commission.
The Governor then filed a lawsuit seeking to disband the commission, which has protected North Carolinians against executive overreach since 1986.
In early September, a three-judge state court panel again upheld absentee ballot laws the so-called settlement now seeks to undo.
The North Carolina legislature and Governor further approved the Bipartisan Elections Act of 2020 this summer, preserving and reforming many of the important absentee ballot changes the apparently partisan agreement now tries to reform.
Speaker Moore said the outrageous attempt to circumvent procedural due process in state government gives the appearance that Democrats are taking official government actions to influence the election in their favor.
“These resignations raise serious questions about the integrity of the Cooper-controlled State Board of Elections, Josh Stein’s Department of Justice and the circumstances of how this collusive settlement was put forward,” Speaker Moore said.“Deceiving the minority Republican members of the board is completely unacceptable and damages faith in our electoral institutions. We are continuing to explore all of our legal options.”
North Carolina is widely considered to be the most important battleground state in the 2020 U.S. General Election.
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