North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday vetoed an election overhaul bill passed by the Republican-controlled legislature last week.
The Democratic governor called the legislation dangerous.
“Right now, legislative Republicans in North Carolina are pushing an all-out assault on the right to vote, using the advice of Trump’s hand-picked election denier, Cleta Mitchell, who was on the call trying to help him overturn the election in Georgia,” Cooper said at the start of a video posted on his official social media accounts announcing his veto. “This attack has nothing to do with election security, and everything to do with keeping and gaining power.”
Senate Bill 747 would overhaul the existing election laws of the Tar Heel State, adding new restrictions and deadlines and further empowering partisan poll watchers, among other changes. The measure would also change current same-day registration rules during the early voting period. Under the new legislation, same-day registrants would have to use a “retrievable ballot” that can be discarded if the county board of elections cannot verify their address.
Cooper also promised to veto another election-related bill still working through the legislature, Senate Bill 749, if it eventually makes it to his desk.
Republicans have a supermajority in both the state House and Senate and have successfully overridden more than a dozen vetoes by Cooper this session. In addition to holding a veto-proof majority in the legislature, Republicans now also hold a majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court, raising the prospect that they could prevail in any court fights over the election overhaul measure.