The GOP-led North Carolina Senate passed a trio of election measures on Wednesday that will likely be stalled by the time they get to the Democratic governor’s desk.
One of the measures passed would cut off the acceptance of mail-in ballots to the day of the election. North Carolina currently allows such ballots to be accepted up to three days after Election Day as long as the mail is dated by Election Day, The Associated Press reported.
The measures were passed along party lines by Republicans. But unlike other GOP-controlled state legislatures that have passed voting measures, North Carolina has a Democratic governor who is likely to veto the bills, the AP reported.
“The bill will build confidence in our election system,” state Sen. Warren Daniel (R), who sponsored the bill, said, according to the AP. “Everyone saw how long it took North Carolina to declare winners in the [2020] presidential election and our U.S. Senate election. And this should help alleviate those concerns.”
The bills next head to the state House, which, like the state Senate, has a Republican majority.
State Democratic lawmakers have expressed opposition to the bill.
“All the circumstances show that there was no issue with the integrity of the North Carolina election,” state Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue (D) said. “The Republican playbook calls for an allegation that there was not integrity in the 2020 election.”
Former President Trump has been pushing false fraud claims since the November election, prompting a number of GOP-led legislatures to push for changes to voting in their states, including in Georgia, Florida and Texas, that some argue make it harder for likely Democratic voters to cast a ballot.