What are you supposed to do during your last few days at work? Maybe plan a party? Write a few thank you notes? Quietly plan a vacation at your desk? 

Well, someone should let Phil Berger and Sarah Stevens know, because they’ve spent their last days at the NC General Assembly writing some of the worst bills of their career, leaving behind legislation that is chock-full of voter suppression tactics and legacies that are big on corruption.  

Two bills in particular saw some movement this week, one bill that attacks voting rights and another that enables a judicial power grab. If these were Berger and Stevens’ parting gifts to North Carolinians, they might as well have just given us a rotting fruit basket instead. 

The anti-voter bill, HB 958, passed the NC Senate this week. This bill would reduce the early voting period during primaries by 7 days, grant Republican Auditor Dave Boliek more power to audit (and potentially manipulate) county election systems, as well as require election officials to use a flawed federal database to identify North Carolinians for removal from the voter rolls. 

The judicial power grab, HB 377, would give the NC Supreme Court, which currently has a 5-2 Republican majority, the power to suspend or remove judges at its own discretion. North Carolina judges are elected, but this bill would give a Republican-led Supreme Court the power to reverse the will of the voters. This could easily lead to a situation where Republicans begin pressuring lower judges to rule in ways that they prefer or else risk losing their job.

These bills are so bad for North Carolinians that you’ve got to ask: Why? 

NC Senate leader Phil Berger’s handprints are all over both of these bills. After losing his primary this year, Berger had trouble moving on. He took more than 3 weeks to concede despite multiple recounts confirming the outcome. He blamed Democrats for his loss, then said that the early voting period needed to be shortened because it was “excessive.” 

His peers granted his request of shortening the early voting period, and they even gave more power to NC Auditor Dave Boliek, who campaigned on Berger’s behalf during the primary. Oh, and Berger’s son is on the NC Supreme Court, which would have expanded powers under the judicial power grab bill.   

How about Sarah Stevens? Stevens is the primary sponsor of BOTH the anti-voter bill and the judicial power grab legislation. These were some of the last bills that Stevens sponsored before resigning last month to focus on her campaign for North Carolina Supreme Court. 

Like Berger, it appears to be all about power for Stevens. Of the two final bills moving in her name, one would make it easier for her party to gain power, and the other would give her more power if she were to get elected to the court. 

It’s disappointing but not surprising. Stevens has either authored or supported every major Republican voter suppression bill since they took over the General Assembly. She has never voted against a rigged election map, and repeatedly used her office to try and silence the voices of communities of color, students, and anyone else she thought might not vote for her party. 

All of this points to a broader pattern for the Republican-led NCGA– they are more focused on maintaining power than serving the communities they were elected to represent. As working families face skyrocketing costs, they are passing gerrymandered maps. When Medicaid went underfunded and North Carolina slipped to 50th in public school funding, they sat on their hands, making us the only state in the budget to fail to pass a budget last year. And now, as Trump looks to set our voting rights ablaze, the NCGA is standing there with plenty of kerosene.  

But regardless of what they throw our way, North Carolina is going to show up and hold our leaders accountable as we have always done. And if you don’t want to wait until the fall, you can do it now. Call your state house representatives and tell them to vote no on HB 958 and HB 377. Our leaders need to get back to serving their communities, not blocking the ballot box.