Fact Sheet: Governor Stein Vetoes HB 958 & Protects North Carolina Voters

Governor Stein Vetoes HB 958 & Protects North Carolina Voters 

Governor Stein vetoed HB 958, calling it an “anti-voter bill.” The bill makes it easier for sore losers to throw out votes after Election Day further empowers a partisan State Auditor to sow doubt in elections, cuts early voting during primaries and expands the tools for the State Board to purge voter rolls.  

House Bill 958: 

Allows challenges to early vote ballots after Election Day 

Allows for challenges to early vote ballots through the third business day after the election, with challenges decided by partisan county boards, making it easier for sore losers to try to overturn election results. 

• Early voting made up nearly 75% of ballots in the 2024 general election — more than 4 million votes — and has been the most popular way of voting in every general election in the past decade. 

• Allowing challenges to millions of votes after election day invites sore losers to overturn results by throwing out votes they don’t like. 

Empowers the State Auditor to continue his partisan interference in local elections administration 

Directs the Auditor to conduct post-election performance audits of election systems and procedures in randomly selected counties, inviting a partisan, statewide election official to sow doubt about election results. 

• The State Auditor and his office pressured the same local election boards he would now audit. 

• Public records reported by The New York Times and others show the Auditor’s elections liaison — a former state GOP executive director — texting one county chair “don’t let them have a vote” on a plan that included a campus early voting site and directing another to “drop Sunday.” 

Cuts early voting in primaries from 17 days to 10 

Cuts early voting in primaries, runoffs, and special elections by a week, further restricting voter access. 

• In a state where congressional and legislative districts have been gerrymandered to create one-party advantages, a large share of offices are effectively decided in the primary. 

• Compressing the window concentrates turnout into fewer days, lengthens lines at the sites that remain, and makes it harder for working people and rural voters to reach the polls. 

Expands the State Board’s tools to purge voter rolls 

Directs the State Board to create processes for investigating and removing voters flagged through federal databases like SAVE, which have been deemed illegal and have been found to wrongly flag eligible voters. 

• List-matching programs of this kind generate false positives, and all too often the burden to correct those mistakes falls on voters who are actually eligible. 

• A federal judge held that the overhauled SAVE system violated federal law and blocked its use. The plaintiffs in that case alleged that the modified database had inaccurately flagged U.S. citizens.