NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNMENT ACTIONS AFFECTING STATE RESIDENTS
- LeRoy Cossette
- Jun 28
- 4 min read
A bill has passed the North Carolina General Assembly that codifies the definitions of "male" and "female" into state law. The bill, which includes new restrictions on gender transition procedures and expanded parental rights in education, now heads to the governor’s office, where a veto is expected due to a partisan split on the bill.
House Bill 805 defines sex in state law based on biological attributes and bars K-12 schools from placing male and female students in the same sleeping quarters. It also prohibits the use of state funds for gender transition procedures in correctional facilities and allows individuals harmed by such procedures to sue for up to 10 years.
In a press release, the North Carolina Republican Party applauded the legislation for helping Democrats to “finally learn what a woman is.”
“House Bill 805 makes clear what most people already know to be true: there are two genders. Despite the best efforts of the far Left, the people of North Carolina strongly believe in these common-sense measures,” said NCGOP communications director Matt Mercer. “It’s now up to Gov. Josh Stein to sign this bill into law or see an override vote in short order.”
Parents could gain the right to opt their children out of certain instructional materials for religious reasons and flag school library books they consider inappropriate. School library catalogs would be required to be made searchable and available online.
Online platforms hosting pornographic content would be subject to stricter age-verification rules under the bill, with significant penalties for violations.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) approved a plan earlier this week to collect missing voter identification data, which had allowed thousands of voters in the state to cast ballots without proper registration.
Missing data includes the absence of a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security Number (SSN4), which were not provided by approximately 195,000 voters on the voter rolls at the time of registration.
Reaching the point where the NCSBE is willing to correct its mistakes has been a lengthy process, one that encountered roadblocks from the previous Democratic majority on the board. The previous NCSBE was willing to allow voters who were not properly registered, or had never even resided in North Carolina, to vote in its elections. And it did not really care about allowing them because they said it probably did not affect the outcome, so ensuring secure elections is more of an afterthought, as The Federalist reported.
There were several lawsuits, including from the Republican National Committee, the state Republican Party, and a state Supreme Court candidate to challenge the rolls, none of which were successful except to the extent that the state Supreme Court recognized in a ruling that the NCSBE was entirely to blame for the issues, despite many months of the board fighting efforts to fix the voter rolls.
“The State Board of Elections is acting to correct numerous errors which have been identified for years as issues,” NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons said in a press release. “This is an encouraging step towards restoring trust in state elections.”
Republicans now hold majorities on all of North Carolina’s 100 county election boards, flipping the partisan control of these local authorities for the first time since 2016.
The State Board of Elections and State Auditor Dave Boliek appointed a new slate of county election officials Tuesday, giving the GOP a 3-2 majority on each board.
Tuesday’s appointments are the latest step in the overhaul of North Carolina’s election apparatus, per legislation passed in the final days of Republicans’ supermajority in the General Assembly last year.
Lawmakers stripped Democratic Gov. Josh Stein of his appointments to the State Board of Elections and transferred them to Boliek, a Republican. A trial court initially struck down this transfer as unconstitutional, noting that it broke with over a century of precedent.
The state’s Republican-controlled appellate courts, however, reversed the lower ruling and allowed the law to take effect.
Auditor Dave Boliek appointed a 3-2 Republican majority to the state board, which quickly voted to oust its longtime director and replace her with a lawyer who has worked for the state’s top legislative leaders.
Replacing county election board members was the next step in implementing the law.
Previously, the state board selected two Republicans and two Democrats for each county board from a list submitted by the local political parties. The governor then appointed a chair to each board, which determined the partisan composition of the majority.
Now, that chair appointment power resides with the auditor, Boliek, who selected a slate of Republicans to lead the boards.
The proposal puts $700 million into the Hurricane Helene Relief Fund and then has an appropriation for $500 million. The bill also reallocates nearly $300 million from the Department of Transportation budget to recovery needs.
The package will allocate $75 million for the construction and reimbursement of privately owned roads and bridges, $70 million for local government capital repairs, and $64.3 million for the repair and construction of damaged schools. The Senate initially sought $8 million for the restoration of public school buildings through the Department of Public Instruction.
There is $51.5 million for local government cash-flow loan program, with no interest; $25 million to help farmers with infrastructure losses; $25 million to upgrade and enhance regional airports to support disaster responses; $18 million for fire stations and rescue squads in western North Carolina; and $15 million for a Select site fund to help economic development. The cash-flow program had a $100 million proposal from the Senate earlier.
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