Why take voter bill off agenda?–
Charlotte Observer
JACK BETTS
Sen. Dan Clodfelter thought it “rather odd” when he got an e-mail at 2:34 in the afternoon on June 5 from State Auditor Les Merritt asking him to take a bill off the agenda when the Senate convened in 26 minutes.The bill had originated in the House and passed more than two months earlier. It would have made it easier for N.C. residents with proper identification to register to vote and cast a ballot at one-stop voting sites. It’s another in a series of measures adopted over the years to make it easier to register and vote.
Senate leaders had first calendared the bill for June 5 but planned to bump it to the next day when Merritt’s request arrived. Merritt wrote: “My office has performed a Strategic Review of the State Board of Elections and has uncovered some sensitive information that is relevant to the issue of voter registration. Therefore, I ask that you consider removing HB 91 off of today’s calendar.”
This was news to Clodfelter and other Senate leaders who had worked on the bill in the Senate Select Committee on Election Laws and Government Reform with other state officials, including State Board of Elections director Gary Bartlett. Bartlett was on vacation with his family that week, and it was the first Clodfelter had heard of a strategic review of the board.
“We had no notice there was a strategic review,” he says. “It’s an odd coincidence that it pops up just the day before consideration of the bill.”
Bartlett thought it odd, too. He knew his staff had suggested a June 6 meeting to help the state auditor’s investigators understand data concerning registration statistics and other matters. Instead, the auditor’s staff presented its preliminary findings — presumably the ones Merritt called “sensitive” in his e-mail.
As the Observer’s David Ingram reported Friday, those findings have not been made public. But Bartlett found the auditor’s conclusions so off-base that he sent Merritt a strongly worded 10-page response and mailed copies to legislators and the governor. Among other things, Bartlett wrote, “we question the existence of the irregularities you purport to have identified because they appear to be tainted by either a misunderstanding of elections statutes or a misunderstanding of the state board’s data.”
What Bartlett wrote next has galvanized the attention of Democrats in the legislature. “I further believe your draft report would have been more accurate and complete if your office had accepted our offer to fully brief your staff on the controlling state and federal election laws and the data you were trying to review. This is a particular concern at this time when the national press is reporting serious issues about the politicization by the United States Department of Justice of the voter registration process. We do not want that kind of problem in our state or for the public to conclude there is such a problem.”
Bartlett is a Democrat. So are those who control the Senate and House. Merritt is a Republican. They’ve gotten along pretty well since Merritt was elected in 2004. Lawmakers may have expected a political ideologue, but Clodfelter says Merritt has worked cooperatively with the legislature on other matters.
Asking the legislature to postpone a bill on a matter of policy has made Senate leaders wonder if this represents something else. “Auditors have talked about certain fiscal things before, but not on a political matter,” says Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland. “This was about some pending legislation of public policy and was certainly unusual.”
The auditor’s office has briefed the Senate leadership, but Clodfelter wants to hear more evidence from the auditor than he’s heard so far. “I’d certainly expect him to have more than that if he’s going to accuse anyone of improprieties,” Clodfelter said.
Senate leaders have scheduled a hearing and requested that Merritt “present your findings and any supporting evidence to the full committee.” Les Merritt will never have a better opportunity to show what he’s got.
IN MY OPINION Jack Betts
Wake County Young Democrats 