A coalition of national and local Republican parties represented by attorney Phil Strach has successfully blocked one of the North Carolina State Board of Elections' ("NCSBE") latest attempts at unlawful rulemaking. (The complaint in Deas v. NCSBE can be found here). NCSBE had interpreted its rules to restrict the coming and going of at-large election observers, stating that, if an at-large observer stayed less than four hours at a particular site, their political party could not send another person to replace them. On Thursday, Wake County Superior Court Judge Vince Rozier decided that the rules governing election place observers should be relaxed. 

There are two kinds of election observers in North Carolina: those who must stay at one polling place and at large-observers who can move among polling places. Political parties have long been allowed to send observers to watch voters and election administrators at polling locations to ensure that the electoral process is followed appropriately. NCSBE's guidance would have unfairly impacted election integrity operations since it would have prevented the substitution of regular observers with party lawyers, who could then investigate any irregularities witnessed by non-lawyer observers. As Strach observed: "We wouldn't be able to replace the layperson observer with the lawyer observer .... We would just be screwed." 

On Thursday, the RNC announced the results of a poll confirming that "voters reject Democrat lies about election integrity efforts." Those polled included Americans identifying as Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. As Georgia Governor Brian Kemp told Fox News, Republicans have the truth on their side when it comes to defending GOP-backed election reforms.

I was on the ground as an observer in Broward County during the Florida recount involving Governor Rick Scott and Senator Bill Nelson. Washington Democrats, Republicans, and the media are all confused regarding what really happen in Broward in the past few weeks.

Democrats want to say that any vote fraud or miscounting in Broward was caused by their inefficiency, not bad intent. Yet, there can be no question the final vote total stole votes from Rick Scott.