Don’t condition disaster relief on election changes.

It is unbelievable that the General Assembly would sneak language into a disaster relief bill to (a) take away powers from governors, (b) change the State Board of Elections so that a GOP elected official would select its members and (c) significantly shorten the time voters have to fix issues with their provisional ballots, ensuring that their votes are counted. And to tie all this to money needed by counties including some of yours in Western NC just because the GOP lost its supermajority is totally unconscionable. You need to remember that the next auditor may be a Democrat. When voters elected this auditor, there was no hint of these new duties. No one campaigned on selecting SBE members. If the person elected auditor had been a Democrat, would the person to make appointments have been the Commissioner of Labor or insurance? Certainly not the Secretary of State because she is a Democrat. The Auditor’s duties have nothing to do with elections. I urge you to at least stand up for what is fair and vote on any State Board of Elections changes separately from disaster relief. Don’t try to blackmail your colleagues into agreement by using their constituents’ financial desperation against them.