It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. As state lawmakers last week worked to override vetoes and pass a mini budget. North Carolina lawmakers also introduced a wide-ranging overhaul of the state's election law.
presented in a proposed committee substitute, also known as a PCS version of House Bill 958. The changes were debated by the House Judiciary Committee last week. The updated legislation comes ahead of the 2026 election cycle and was presented to the committee the same week that leading candidates for North Carolina's U.S. Senate seat made their official announcements. The bill includes changes to ballot counting timelines, absentee voting procedures, campaign finance thresholds, and authority of the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
It replaces an earlier version of the bill, expanding and clarifying key procedures. A couple of different changes in this legislation that we'll walk through this morning. The first is the window that is allowed for state and local election leaders to count ballots. The updated version creates a standardized window for counting early and absentee ballots. That is between 9 a.m.
and 5 p.m. on election day at a location and time established by the county election board at least two. Two weeks prior. Under the bill, election officials may begin counting ballots early in the day, but results still may not be revealed until all polls in the county close. doctor Andy Jackson, the director of the Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, says House Bill nine hundred fifty eight would help make North Carolina elections more secure and better administered.
the General Assembly passed a bill, Senate Bill 747, that included the provision requiring that early voting ballots be counted after polls closed on Election Day. The goal of that provision was to prevent early voting totals from leaking before polls closed, which could potentially affect people's votes. Jackson added that while that is a good goal, it made the release of election results data on election night in 2024 chaotic and proved to be burdensome for election officials. House Bill 958 will allow county election officials to count early ballots during the day on Election Day again, but with provisions to ensure that the counting is secure and that members of the public can witness the procedure, but not the actual count itself.
So that's one of the major provisions there. The other The legislation also extends the deadline for finalizing absentee and provisional ballot tallies from a third to a fifth business day after the election. This shift gives county boards more time to verify eligibility, complete counts, particularly for ballots flagged with issues. Under the proposed committee substitute, voters who submit absentee ballots that are missing signatures or photo ID copies will have until noon on the fifth business day after the election to correct those issues. This change aligns absentee procedures with other extended post-election deadlines.
Public transparency is emphasized through the bill. All counting processes must be conducted in public view, and bipartisan election officials are required to be present during all stages of the count. Observers are prohibited. Prohibited from interfering, but must allow, but must be allowed to witness the proceedings themselves. Ranked choice voting.
That has been an interesting discussion across the United States. In this provision, this bill would also ban ranked choice voting in all North Carolina elections. The legislation defines ranked choice as any method that allows voters to rank candidates in order or preference and prohibits its use in both partisan and non-partisan races. Dr. Andy Jackson said ranked choice voting is confusing for voters and the longer ballots would cause longer lines, especially in early voting.
It is best that North Carolina avoids it. The bill also grants county election boards the ability to ch to challenge ballots cast during early voting or by mail if an audit reveals potential ineligibility. such as a nonresident or death before election day. Challenged ballots must be reviewed and ruled on before the canvassing deadline. One specific provision ensures that ballots cast by voters who die before six thirty a.m.
on Election Day will not be counted, tightening an area of law that previously allowed some more discretion. This proposed legislation also expands the power of the North Carolina State Board of Elections. It allows the board to retain private legal counsel without the approval of the Attorney General or the General Assembly and designate up to five exempt staff positions outside of state HR rules. According to Dr. Andy Jackson, he says, quote, I expect that the State Board of Elections and County Boards will still use attorneys from the Attorney General of North Carolina and the Justice Department in most cases.
However, there may be situations where election officials believe that they would be better represented by an attorney of their choice, especially if they believe that the Attorney General is sympathetic to those who are suing the State Board of Elections. On the voter registration front, this bill mandates that all new voter registration forms include the applicant's full nine-digit Social Security. Number beginning January 1st, 2027. Until then, forms without full Social Security numbers still may be accepted. In campaign finance law, the reporting exemption threshold for candidates in local elections is raised from $1,000 to $3,000 for total contributions, loans, or expenditures.
The bill also makes it a misdemeanor to pay petition circulars per signature collected if you are trying to gain ballot access in a local or statewide race. Finally, the bill clarifies that a temporary extended Class C driver's license, such as those affected by the recent state-level moratoriums that allows individuals to drive with an expired license for two years, those will also be considered valid voter IDs through December the 31st, 2027.
So that is coming into line there with some of those changes at the General Assembly. That, of course, is due to backlogs from DMV. This version of House Bill 958 is aimed at ensuring uniform implementation across North Carolina's all 100 counties. I'll remind you this morning that in the state, every election is run by the county board of elections in all 100 counties through North Carolina. This is done by explicitly spelling out when and where and how ballots can be counted, such as the 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. window and deadlines for absentee and provisional ballot processing. The bill would also limit the discretion of local officials and courts, potentially warding off post-election litigation, especially in close contests where ambiguous procedures can often be challenged. This push for procedural clarity also reflects a broader shift in election oversight following the recent realignment of the North Carolina State Board of Elections under GOP control. After the legislature transformed appointments from the Democratic governor to the Republican state auditor, the auditor moved swiftly and pretty quickly by adding Republican Francis DeLuca and Bob Rucho to the board, flipping its majority from a Democrat body to a Republican body, and that new majority immediately replaced longtime director Karen Brinson Bell.
Lawmakers appear eager to lock in these detailed standards, especially around ballot counting and audits, to align administrative practices with legislative intent and bolster public confidence in the process. Most provisions would take effect on January the 1st, 2026, with a few phased in at later dates. The bill could also be considered when the state legislature comes back in either August or September, that was outlined in last week's adjournment resolution. Election law and election challenges, of course, have been a pretty interesting topic across North Carolina with a six-month battle over the Jefferson Griffin race, voter ID, potential non-residents voting in elections. It has caused some big-time issues in the state as lawmakers continue to try and lock all of those processes down so that they do not have those ballot challenges and these six, seven, eight-month election challenges that we have recently seen.
Seen here in the state of North Carolina. We'll continue to track the details right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour and over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
Okay. It's 22 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-99.3 WBT. Don't forget if you miss any portion of our show live weekday mornings, 5 to 6 right here on WBT, you can check out our Carolina Journal News Hour podcast. It's available in Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, anywhere you get your shows.
Search for the Carolina Journal News Hour, tap that subscribe or follow button, and you'll get a new program delivered each and every weekday morning. The show also streams live and is available after the fact on our Carolina Journal YouTube channel. Last week, the Republican-led General Assembly dealt with some veto overrides. Towards the end of the week, they also passed what is called a mini-budget. This is after a months-long debate between Republicans in both the North Carolina House and Senate in their inability to come together on a full budget proposal.
The question continues to be: will that be signed by Democrat Governor Josh Stein? To get some more details on that this morning, Teresa Opaika, CarolinaJournal.com, joins us on the news hour. Teresa, the governor made some comments at Tuesday's Council of State meeting. What's the latest that you're following? Sure.
Good morning, Nick. Thanks for having me.
So, yeah, he made the comment about the mini budget the General Assembly passed last week. He basically called it a band-aid budget. He said it allows the state to keep the lights on, but it fails all of North Carolina. He's like you said, we've got teachers, students, and students, not sure students, but just teachers counting on the real raises. We've got law enforcement in need of real raises so they can address vacancies.
They need to reward people going through basic law enforcement training to get more cops on the beat. And the mini budget also fails Medicaid beneficiaries. He said, while it did help fund part of the rebase, the mini budget, it doesn't fully fund it. And he said there's going to be real consequences to human life because of that failure.
So he also said it failed state employees because there are no raises in this mini budget when taking inflation into account. You know, it is an interesting comment there that the governor says, you know, it keeps the lights on. I think it's important to know to our audience this morning that regardless of whether the governor signs this into law or if the General Assembly even moved forward with it, Teresa, last year's budget would have continued in perpetuity until they pass another one.
So there was no immediate need or immediate risk of the government shutting down and not being able to operate. But definitely some of those raises and things going forward have not happened to this point. Correct, correct. Like what North Carolina has is a biennium budget, you know, for two years.
So, and I think they believe they signed legislation some years back where, like you say, if they don't come to an agreement by June 30th, that they can go ahead and use the previous terms budget.
So things would be fine. I mean, you're just not getting anything new that's needed, but the state would not shut down.
So, yeah. And as you mentioned, Governor Stein said he would sign the mini budget. He said he would sign it soon. Didn't give an exact time frame for it, but he said he would. He said, again, mentioning it's just a band-aid, but it's something that needs to be passed because there is a lot in there, including funding the state health plan, which I know that Treasurer Brad Reiner mentioned also at the meeting that that final Their final state health plan meeting is coming up on August 15th, where they're going to give more information about how much premiums are going to go up and things of that nature.
Looking at some of the other details in this mini-budget that was passed by the General Assembly, will be signed by Governor Josh Stein in the next couple of days. It does deal with some issues that the state is dealing with, including allocating $1.2 million to the Division of Motor Vehicle for the DMV. That's also been a big story that we've talked about this week, Teresa, as well. Yeah, right, right. As you mentioned about that, the 1.2 million that's going to create the 40 new full-time driver license examiners positions and an additional 3 million as well for 21 more positions the following fiscal year, 2026 to 2027.
Again, that is a band-aid because, as we've been talking about, it's been the long-awaited audit we've all been waiting for, six months in the making, which we had auditor Dave Bollock release it on Monday. The 435-page audit, he said there's many, many more positions that are needed. The legislature needs to appropriate much more funding because there's just such short-staffed when it comes to people around the DMB offices, including the one in Lillington, Harnett County for 56,000 residents, just one driver's license examiner. That's just an amazing, amazing figure.
So yeah, they definitely need to get more funding. You know, as we look forward to the rest of the year, the General Assembly does have a couple of more dates where they can be back in Raleigh if there are votes to be dealt with.
So I guess, Teresa, it's possible that there could be another mini budget or two, but from all of the experts that we've spoken to over at the John Locke Foundation, it seems like a full-scale budget like Governor Josh Stein is pushing for is probably not going to happen as we head into the latter parts of this year. Right, that's not looking likely. As you mentioned, they've got a couple other dates on their calendar. They might pass another mini budget or two with a couple things in it. But it does not look like there's going to be a full budget that Governor Stein is calling for.
And so we'll just have to see what will be in the rest of those appropriations when they do have some more meetups in Raleigh. We do have some additional details from that Council of State meeting, some other comments from the governor, including a veto overrides and some tropical storms earlier this year. Where can folks get those details? Sure, they can head on over to CarolinaJournal.com. It's a great update this morning.
Teresa Opaca joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It's 5:35. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. Yesterday, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein said that he's asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency for additional public assistance disaster declarations to increase the federal relief dollars available to local governments that were affected by Tropical Storm Chantal in the month of July. The governor said that local governments are facing tens of millions of dollars in damage from the storm, which killed at least six people in central North Carolina last month.
Stein previously declared a state of emergency for 13 counties grappling with the remnants of the storm. The governor said on Tuesday that he would declare a type 1 disaster in North Carolina, which allows affected people to apply for aid. With the governor saying, whether it's that they don't have insurance and they lost all of their life's possessions, they can get some money to help them get on with their lives. Last month, the Small Business Administration, or the SBA, approved a disaster declaration for eight North Carolina counties affected by the storm. That declaration allows business owners and homeowners to apply for low-interest loans.
The governor told the Council of State, quote, we have more work to do in helping the people of Central North Carolina recover, just as we continue to be focused on doing everything we can to help Western North Carolina get back on its feet. We will track this process. Progress and this process, as the governor now is declaring this type 1 disaster in North Carolina. We've got details and we'll continue the coverage this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, and of course, right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour, where it's now 5:37, News Talk 1110, 99.3 WBT. Farming and agriculture are a big business across the state of North Carolina.
This morning, we've got a new letter from U.S. Senator Ted Budd sent to the Department of Labor on some ongoing frustrations and costs for farmers across the state of North Carolina and the rest of the United States. To walk us through some of those details, Katie ZenderCarolinaJournal.com joins us on the news hour. Katie, I'm remembering back a story from a couple of months ago we talked about farming continues to be the number one business in North Carolina.
So things, regulations, laws, and things that affect farming has a huge and immediate impact across the Tarheel State. Right, that's exactly right, Nick.
So agriculture has been the number one industry in North Carolina for quite some time. It garnishes about $111.1 billion with a B dollar annually.
So it is the top industry here in North Carolina, very important here. But yeah, so on August 1st, just last Friday, Senator Ted Budd joined some of his congressional colleagues, including Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina and Representatives Ralph Norman, also from South Carolina, in sending this letter to Secretary of the Department of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRaymer. And basically what this letter does is urges the Department of Labor to roll back some regulations that were put in place during the Biden administration that have to do with the H-2A Visa Worker Program. And these regulations that were put in place during the Biden administration really kind of jack up the costs of this program and really make it really difficult on farmers across the nation.
Some of the most notable North Carolina names that are on this letter, aside from Senator Ted Budd, including Representative Richard Hudson out of the 8th District, Representative Virginia Fox out of the 5th District, and even Representative Don Davis, a Democrat, out of the 1st District.
So those are some of the most notable names, especially here in North Carolina, that have signed their names to this letter. Yeah, not necessarily surprising about Don Davis. He is, in fact, a Democrat, but a lot of farming going on in the first congressional district all the way up to the Virginia border.
So you talk about this H-2A program and some of these changes under the Biden administration. Can you give us some more detail on that, Katie? What were these changes and what kind of impact is it actually having for both small, medium and large farms across North Carolina? Right, so according to the press release from Budd's office, the regulations have increased the cost for farmers and they have made the H2O visa program more complex and deepening the financial losses for farmers. They create new hurdles for producers that are trying to participate in the program.
And so the letter reads: While consistent access to agricultural labor has always been difficult, the Biden administration further complicated this issue by applying a series of rules that fundamentally altered the implementation of the visa program and the methodology used to determine the adverse effect wage rate, or the AEWR. And so these changes really kind of increase the cost of the wages for H-2A workers. And that's really what I'm hearing from farmers here in North Carolina as I've talked to them over the last couple of months. But Senator Ted Budd said in a statement to the Carolina Journal: he said, Biden-era decisions on everything from the H-2A visa program to the adverse effect wage rates are disposed to. Disconnected from reality and have placed unsustainable burdens on American farmers.
On top of rising production costs, expenses, growing trade deficit, and ongoing disaster impacts, producers are now facing increased labor costs, jeopardizing the viability of farms here in North Carolina and across the country. And then he goes on.
So that's what specifically Bud had to say, you know, when we reached out to his office for comment further in a little bit more detail on this and this letter and why they sent it and why they feel this is an important issue.
So we mentioned and we talk about the fact that agriculture specifically, you know, looking at farming here in North Carolina is the number one industry in the state. It provides a lot of money to the state of North Carolina. But Katie, it may be important to note for our audience that this morning, especially for those small and medium-sized farms, their margins from all of your reporting and our discussions in the past continued to be incredibly small.
So even though it is a big business, there may not be all that much money to be made, especially for those smaller groups. Right, that's exactly right, Nick.
So, you know, the profit margin for farmers, even some of the larger farmers, you know, obviously the larger farms have a much larger profit margin, but even they don't have the largest profit margin, especially the smaller to medium-sized, like the family farms, they have a very small profit margin. And, you know, over the last several months, I've been talking to a lot of farmers in different areas and industries of agriculture, you know, sweet potatoes, Christmas trees, cotton, all these different areas. And they're all telling me the same thing: that the costs of the H2A visa program have gone up exorbitantly, and they pay for all this.
So it's not just the wage increase. They have to pay to house them. They have to pay to transport them there. They have to pay for all of these things. And also, a couple of months ago at the John Locke Foundation, there was a report that came out called Harvest on Hold, and it's really about a labor shortage in the agricultural industry.
And part of that has to do with the H-2A visa program and the exorbitant costs of it. And so rolling back some of these regulations. That were implemented by the Biden administration is really going to, you know, take some of the burden off farmers. It's going to make it a lot easier for them to hire these H2A visa workers. And, you know, a lot of people say, well, you know, these visa workers are taking jobs away from Americans.
These are jobs that Americans are not going to do. Americans are not going to go out there and pick tobacco. They're not going to go out there and pick cotton. They're not going to do these jobs. They just aren't.
But these H2A visa workers are willing to do it. And so if we can roll back some of these regulations, then we can fill this labor shortage and fill this gap in the labor industry. And we can also make it easier. On these farmers and kind of lift some of the burden off of these farmers so they can have a larger profit margin to, you know, kind of turn back into their business. Yeah, and we talk about this is obviously a big issue, but Katie, farmers are kind of taking it from all directions right now.
You've been covering the impacts on tariffs in various industries that that's having on North Carolina. Of course, natural disasters, Helene striking the West. We're in the midst of the Atlantic hurricane season right now. A lot of uncertainty in agriculture and farming. That's got to be a tough pill to swallow for a lot of those folks.
That's exactly right, Nick. And you know, agriculture and farming, it's never going to be an easy industry. These farmers know that getting into it. But you're right. Like, they really have kind of taken the brunt of it lately, you know, with Hurricane Helene and tariffs and, you know, H-2A worker programs and all of these kind of things just kind of piling on at once.
And, you know, weather's something you not really can control.
So you're always going to have, you know, the kind of wild card of weather. And, oh, what's the weather going to do? And then we've got Hurricane Helene when these natural disasters happen. But if we can just, you know, kind of ease the burden on these farmers a little bit, that's going to take a huge burden off of them, which we're going to see. If we take that burden off the farmers, we're going to see that when prices come down in the grocery store.
So it's that trickle-down effect.
So if we can, you know, kind of take some of the burden off of these farmers, take some of the, you know, financial burdens off of them, we're going to see the benefit of that trickle down to us. No question about that. It's a great update this morning. We appreciate the details. Katie Zender from CarolinaJournal.com joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
It's 5:51. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, News Talk 1110-993 WBT. Yesterday, the North Carolina Council of State met for their monthly meeting. That includes 10 members of the Council of State, including Democrat Governor Josh Stein. He told members yesterday at their meeting that he will be signing the General Assembly's mini-budget, but not before he admonished legislators for not passing a full budget.
He called House Bill 125, which is called continuing budget operations, a quote bandaid budget. that allows the state to keep the lights on but fails all of North Carolina, with the governor saying, quote, we've got teachers and students counting on real raises. We've got law enforcement in need of real raises so that we can address the vacancies that exist throughout state government and in local government. We need to be rewarding people going through basic law enforcement training so we can get more cops on the beat. It fails our Medicaid beneficiaries.
It helps fund part of the rebase, but it does not fully fund it, and there are going to be real consequences to human life because of this failure. He also said it failed state employees because there are no raises in this budget when taking inflation into account.
So the governor wrapped up his comments by saying, quote, so this is a band-aid budget. It does keep the lights on. Therefore, I will sign it. But the legislature needs to get to work to take care of investing in the people of the state and investing in the future of North Carolina.
So the governor, I guess, regardless of his stance on it, is going to sign it. I will note that he doesn't mention that it keeps the lights on. The state of North Carolina does not have a shutdown provision like the federal government does.
So if nothing is passed, which it has not been to this point as it relates to the budget, the state government continues to operate under the last fiscal year spending plan.
So there is no risk of the lights being shut off if this was vetoed or not passed by the General Assembly. The mini budget allocates $1.2 million in recurring funding to create 40 new full-time driver license examiners position for the 25-26 biennium and an additional $3 million for 21 more examiners in the fiscal year 26-27. But this is also a bandaid of sorts when it comes to additional positions that are leaded at the that are needed rather at the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles, as was evident by this week's earlier 435 page audit conducted by State Auditor Dave Bollick. Stein thanked Bullock for the audit and agreed that more personnel, policy changes and a long term strategic plan are needed, which he said is underway. The governor commented on the audit, saying, quote, It's going to take a while to get this ship straight, but we commit to doing everything in our power in doing just that, and I'm grateful for the legislature's partnership.
That was one of the best parts of the mini-budget. The governor, like Department of Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins and DMV Commissioner Paul Tyne, however, is not in favor of making the DMV an independent agency, removing it under the umbrella of DOT. But he said it's clear that a full government approach and commitment to fixing the DMV are needed. With Stein noting, the auditor identified some solutions and we've already been implementing many of those on our own. We need a long term strategic plan so that we can get this agency to the level of service that the people of North Carolina deserve.
We all know it's not there now, and we're going to and we're going to do the long, hard work of getting it to where it needs to be. Stein said a big part of the DMV's problem has been increased population, stating that North Carolina is the third fastest growing state in the nation, saying, quote, we have tons of people moving in on a daily basis, and there has been an increase in DMV for a long time.
So we all just need to come together and fix this problem. The governor Made those comments just one day after State Auditor Dave Bollock released this very, very involved and very extensive 435-page audit of the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicle showing serious procedural issues within the DMV. As was noted by State Auditor Bullock, this is not a new problem in the state of North Carolina. This has been going on for quite some time under the leadership of former Democrat governor, now Senate candidate Roy Cooper, with failures of metrics, lacking the required staffing positions, just a general mismanagement of the agency. The state auditor campaigned on this.
He told North Carolina voters before the November election last year that he was going to conduct an audit of the DMV. And after just seven months in office, he has followed through on that promise. We have a full analysis of the state auditor's report over on our website. This morning, CarolinaJournal.com. The headline on that: DMV audit reveals systematic problems recommends separation from NCDOT.
We will watch the continued fallout from that and comments from government officials and leaders like Democrat Governor Josh Stein and others across the state.
Well, that's going to do it for a Wednesday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning, BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on News Talk 1110 and 99.3, WBT.
