Electoral matters are governed by the North Carolina Board of Elections and in each of the 100 counties, a local Board of Elections, each with five members. In total, that is 505 people who make important decisions about elections including the calendar for early voting and voting locations for precincts, approving voting machines, collecting and reviewing campaign finance reports, determining what types of photo IDs can be used to vote, resolving voting and candidate eligibility issues, and certifying elections.
Given their 37% share of the overall voter population, we might reasonably expect to see some 180-to-190 independents serving on the Boards of Election. In fact, not a single one of those 505 people is an independent voter! They are all Democrats or Republicans. It is literally against the law to appoint an independent voter to serve on any Board of Elections! So, the largest group of voters have no say in administering our elections.
This is manifestly unfair to them. But it’s also bad for us. Under current law—with five member boards consisting of two Democrats and two Republicans with the chairs appointed by the Governor—having no independents means partisan disputes will invariably be resolved in the favor of whichever party the Governor belongs to, regardless of what the best policy solution might be. Under an updated law passed this last session—and currently enjoined from going into effect by court order while a legal challenge to it is resolved—the boards would have only four members—two from each establishment party with no independents—which means partisan issues will invariably be deadlocked, which would be utterly dysfunctional.
Unlike Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, and No Labelites—who merely have to pay a fee—independents cannot file to run for office in partisan races unless they first submit petitions signed by thousands of voters—which effectively keeps independent candidates off the ballot. In 2024, there is an independent candidate on the ballot for the 6th Congressional district—the first one ever in NC history, which goes to show how unreasonably high the bar is. This inherently unfair discrimination against independent voters hurts all of us, by denying us more choices on our ballots.