Fact Check: GOP Constitutional Amendment Deception

RALEIGH

Jul 23, 2018

TO: Members of the Press
FROM: Ford Porter
DATE: July 23, 2018
RE: GOP Constitutional Amendment Deception

Members of the Press,

Republicans want to deceive voters about their proposed constitutional amendments that rig the system in their favor by suppressing the vote, picking their own judges and appointing their own regulators who will hurt clean water and education.

Legislative Republicans understand that North Carolinians will oppose many of these amendments, so they passed misleading ballot language designed to conceal the scope and consequences of these constitutional changes. Fortunately, state law requires a separate, currently bipartisan board made up of the Attorney General, Secretary of State and Legislative Services Officer to create objective captions so voters understand the impact of Constitutional amendments on the ballot. But instead of allowing an open and transparent process, Republicans are calling a special session to circumvent this board's work and prevent voters from seeing accurate descriptions of these amendments.

Legislative Republicans want to mislead voters in order to re-write the Constitution. It is vital that North Carolinians understand the true impact of these amendments.

Fact Check: GOP Constitutional Amendment Deception Legislative Republicans want to deceive and mislead voters about what their proposed constitutional amendments would do
What the GOP Says	What the Amendment Actually Allows
Bipartisan State Board of Ethics and Elections Enforcement Constitutional amendment to establish a Board of Ethics and Elections to administer ethics and election laws...	Board is already bipartisan Creates a deadlocked 4-4 State Board of Elections that will ultimately result in fewer opportunities for people to vote Removes the Governor's authority to appoint Board of Elections members even though the legislature's attempt to take the Governor's authority away
...to clarify the appointment authority of the Legislative and the Judicial Branches...	Allows the legislature to appoint regulators with the wrong priorities to hundreds of state boards and commissions Allows the legislature that cut early voting and gerrymandered their own districts to pick all the members of the Board of Elections Allows legislators who shortchanged our schools and teachers to pick who will set the course for our state's education Allows legislators who failed to protect our drinking water from GenX and supported spraying "garbage juice" to pick who writes the rules for water pollution Allows legislators who supported oil drilling off North Carolina's coast to decide who writes the rules about beach protection
Selection for Judicial Vacancies Constitutional amendment to implement a nonpartisan merit-based system that relies on professional qualifications instead of political influence when nominating Justices and judges to be selected to fill vacancies that occur between judicial elections.	Allows the legislature to control the nomination process for judicial vacancies to begin moving toward full legislative appointment of judges instead of letting voters pick judges Requires the Governor to select candidates for judicial vacancies by restricting choices to 2 nominees provided by the legislature
Voter ID Constitutional amendment to require voters to provide photo identification before voting in person.	Previous efforts on this issue have been found unconstitutional Vague language would allow the same legislators who wrote unconstitutional voting laws to fill in all the details if this passes No demonstrated fraud that this amendment would prevent
Cap on Income Tax Rate Constitutional amendment to reduce the income tax rate in North Carolina to a maximum allowable rate of seven percent (7%).	Reduce the state's flexibility to fund education and balance the budget Ties the hands of future legislatures from responding to economic crises like recessions or natural disasters