Lawmakers try once again to restructure state elections board

One five-member board, controlled by the governor, would handle only the administration of elections. As has been the practice in the past, the governor would appoint three members of his own party and two members of the other major party from lists of candidates recommended by the respective party leaders.

A second, eight-member bipartisan board would handle ethics, campaign finance and lobbying, with half the board appointed by the governor and the other half by state lawmakers.

At the county level, the four-member bipartisan boards instituted by lawmakers but scuttled by the courts would return to their traditional three-member format, with the state board appointing the members and the governor's party having a 2-1 majority. However, the law would still require Republicans on each county board to serve as chair in election years.

The proposal would also repeal the long-standing law that state political investigations are handled by the Wake County District Attorney's Office, moving those investigations instead to the prosecutorial district in which the candidate resides.

The proposal would also repeal six boards and commissions whose structures were found unconstitutional by judges last month: the State Building Commission, the Child Care Commission, the Clean Water Management Trust Fund Board of Trustees, the state Parks and Recreation Authority, the Private Protective Services Board and the Rural Infrastructure Authority.

In what appears to be a rebuke, the measure would repeal the Constitutional Amendment Publication Commission, the three-member panel charged with writing descriptions of proposed constitutional amendments for voter information materials.

The two Democrats on the commission this year, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Attorney General Josh Stein, were outspoken on their opinion that state lawmakers wrote deceptive ballot descriptions of the six proposed amendments in the the November election. Four of the six were approved.

House Bill 1117 will likely be heard in House Elections committee Tuesday or Wednesday. However, it's likely to change in its next version.