League of Women Voters of North Carolina

With Common Cause, we are joining others in local groups to encourage the city council members in a number of NC cities to try publicly funded municipal elections. House Bill 803 lets Chapel Hill use public funding for its 2009 races. With a little luck, we can convince other cities to give it a try. If so, we can encourage the legislature in the upcoming short session to ‘amend’ ratified HB 803 to add other willing cities. The targets are Asheville, Charlotte, Greenville, Wilmington, Greensboro, Raleigh and Cary. League members in Greensboro have already gone to a local meeting. If you are a member of a League in Asheville/Buncombe, Charlotte/Mecklenburg, Pitt, Lower Cape Fear, Piedmont/Triad or Wake County, please consider getting involved in these efforts. Contact Voter Services Chair Louise Romanow or Diane Tworog of Common Cause for more information. Go to Common Cause for more information on local public financing.

The League supported a number of campaign reform measures during the 2007 legislative session:

a Council of State public funding pilot, H-1517, which passed at the 11th hour,
a pilot for funding legislative races did not make it out of either chamber (This legislation will not be taken up in the 2008 short session, which convenes May 13.),
‘Same-day registration’, H-19, which allows residents to register and vote at the same time at early voting sites in their county,
H-483, allowing for a pilot for public funding of municipal elections in Chapel Hill,
legislation, H-1024, that allowed for ‘Instant runoff’ voting in Cary and Hendersonville during the 2007 elections, and
a bill to strengthen the judicial fund, to allow matching funds to compensate for money spent by issue groups targeting for judicial candidates who opted for public campaign funds. Although a number of judges were targeted in 2006, most judges are opting to use the fund again in 2008. A provision to match similar 527 spending is already in the Council of State pilot bill.

For a bit more information on these bills, see Synopsis of 2007 legislative achievement. For the nitty gritty, see below.

What’s happening now? Working closely with a coalition of groups interested in campaign reform, we continue to advance legislation that provides for freer elections. North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections, of which the League is a founding member, has just released its 2007 Legislative Scorecard, showing how legislators across the state voted on campaign reform bills. Know how your legislator voted, in 2006 and 2007. As public financing of local races is just starting in NC, we watch how it is unfolding, offering our support to municipalities and counties interested in public funding of races in 2008. A number of candidates for the Council of State races with public funding pilots, that is, State Auditor, Commissioner of Insurance, and Superintendent of Public Instruction, have already publicly expressed interest in participating in our state's new campaign public financing program. There is currently a lawsuit against the $50 surcharge on lawyers, which is crucial to the viability of the Judicial Campaign Fund. If you would like to get involved in working for election reform in NC, please contact Louise Romanow at LWVNCCampaignReform@earthlink.net. Updated December 19, 2007

2007 House legislative public financing pilot bill (did not pass)

Chapel Hill Campaign Finance Options (H-483)

LWVNC Position on Redistricting

Publicly funded local elections

Campaign Reform

Public Financing of Judicial Races

Public Funding of Legislative Races

Public Funding of Executive Races (Council of State)

Local Funding

Same Day Registration

Redistricting

Other Election Reform

League Partners