Trump campaign sought Hurricane Helene voting rules looser than what NC legislature approved

Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign asked North Carolina leaders for election changes that could allow for more unregistered voters to cast ballots. 

The request from the former president’s campaign came as the state Board of Elections and the state legislature eased some voting rules for people whose lives have been disrupted by Hurricane Helene. 

The state Board of Elections this week adopted emergency provisions for 13 western counties that allow voters to request absentee ballots in person up until the day before the election, allow people to return absentee ballots to polling places on Election Day, and allow voters to hand-deliver absentee ballots to the state Board of Elections office or to county election board offices other than their home counties. 

The legislature’s hurricane relief bill largely mirrors the state board’s action, but expands the reach to 12 additional counties in the FEMA disaster area. 

Legislators committed $5 million to election-related needs, more than double what the state Board of Elections requested. 

The Trump campaign said in a Tuesday press release that along with these changes, it asked Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Republican-controlled legislature to allow people to cast provisional ballots in counties where they are not registered. 

Poll workers, however, cannot access voter registration information for people who live outside their county. The Trump campaign’s request would allow more people whose registration cannot be confirmed to cast ballots this fall. 

Provisional ballots are a regular part of elections. When poll workers have questions about voters’ qualifications or eligibility, they ask those voters to cast provisional ballots so information can be verified before their votes are counted. Allowing people to vote provisionally outside their home county would greatly increase the work of verifying voter eligibility and offer an opening to people who aren’t registered to cast a ballot.

The campaign has an interest in maximizing voter turnout from the solidly Republican western counties in this battleground state. All 25 counties where absentee ballot rules are eased, excluding Watauga and Buncombe, went for Trump over President Joe Biden in 2020. 

For the past four years, Trump has been railing about fraud costing him the 2020 election, even though there is no evidence of such fraud. 

The Republican National Committee has filed several lawsuits in the last few months challenging state election procedures. The lawsuits have targeted absentee ballot counts, voting by citizens living overseas, and voter registration list maintenance. 

The Trump campaign did not respond Wednesday afternoon to questions about its request to ease rules on provisional ballots.

It was not clear Wednesday why the Trump request for out-of-county provisional ballots was not in the relief bill. Four legislators said Wednesday they were unfamiliar with how staff decided what to put into the bill. 

The Senate staff, House staff, legislative central staff, and the state Board of Elections worked on the voting and election administration section of the bill, said Rep. Grey Mills, chairman of the House Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform Committee.

“The Trump administration has not called me, so I’m unfamiliar with that,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you what input, if any, they had. I just know that our local experts and our central staff, our lawyers here, helped draft the language with the Board’s input.”

In an email, state elections board spokesman Pat Gannon said allowing people to cast provisional ballots outside their home counties would be a “logistical, manpower, and chain-of-custody nightmare.”

Subsequent to its passage, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley issued a statement praising the legislation, saying, “Under these new rules, the RNC and NCGOP will work hand in hand to mobilize voters, get folks to the polls, and deliver North Carolina for President Trump for a third time.”

The House rejected a request by Democratic Rep. Caleb Rudow to consider a bill that would have extended the regular voter registration deadline from Oct. 11 to Oct. 16, and restored the three-day grace period for absentee ballots to be received by local elections offices. 

House Rules Chairman Destin Hall said the crisis was no time for “partisan games.”

Rudow said his suggestion was not partisan, but was aimed at helping people vote.

“Lots of folks agree with this idea,” he said. “It’s a bipartisan idea. It’s about voting.”

This report has been updated to include the national RNC’s response to the legislation.