NC Senate GOP overrides Gov. Cooper’s veto of power grab bill; fate of bill will be decided by House’s override vote
Earlier this week, under a cleared-out gallery of the North Carolina legislature, the state Senate overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 382, a brazen right-wing power grab dressed up as a “Helene relief” bill.
After voters rejected state-level MAGA candidates in November’s election, State Senate GOP lawmakers secretly wrote and then immediately passed SB 382, a 131-page bill that strips power from the incoming Democrats who won council of state seats, like governor and attorney general, and also drastically alters how elections are run.
Senate Republicans have publicly claimed the bill allocates $227 million in Helene relief from the state’s reserves, but the legislation orders that money to remain unspent for an undetermined amount of time.
Rep. Eric Ager (D-Buncombe) explained how the bill doesn’t do anything to help WNC. “It moves some money around here in Raleigh, but it doesn’t get it into the hands of the people that need it,” he said. “Instead, this bill is focused on a whole host of political priorities.”
In addition to the council of state power grab, SB 382 also makes significant changes to elections in North Carolina. That includes shifting the power of NC State Board of Elections (NCSBE) appointments and oversight from Gov.-elect Josh Stein to the newly elected Republican state auditor. It also cuts back the amount of time groups have to fix issues with mail-in and provisional ballots (see the state Supreme Court race) and it would target and remove two judges who had ruled against Republican election law changes previously.
The bill passed the House by a 63-46 vote, but that vote included three Republicans, all representing districts in WNC, joining Democrats to vote against the bill. One of the Republicans who joined with Democrats said, “The bill appears to do nothing for western NC.”
The House is expected to vote on the veto override next week and Republicans will need all members – including the three who voted with Democrats – to vote for the override. If one Republican votes against it then the override will fail.
