A stalled North Carolina elections reform bill has resurfaced with expanded provisions, including a first-of-its-kind performance audit requirement designed to review the entire election process from voter registration to post-election recounts. House Bill 958, which "appeared to be moving quickly through the General Assembly last year" before it "suddenly dropped off the radar," returned to the House Election Law Committee on June 16, 2026, according to a report by Dr. Andy Jackson of the John Locke Foundation's Civitas Center for Public Integrity. The amended bill features dozens of election law changes, most aimed at improving election security and accuracy.
The bill extends several key deadlines and clarifies ballot handling procedures. County boards would get five business days after election day to fix problems with absentee ballot envelopes and determine whether provisional ballots should be counted, up from the current three-day window. County election boards could start counting absentee ballots at 9:00 AM on election day rather than waiting until 5:00 PM. The bill would also require that military and overseas voters submit copies of their photo IDs with their ballots, and it bans ranked-choice voting in all North Carolina elections. Additional provisions include a requirement that people must be affiliated with a party for at least 365 days before filing in that party's primary, up from the current 90 days, and a prohibition on referendum committees accepting contributions from foreign nationals, governments, political parties, or businesses.
The performance audit provision represents the bill's most significant addition. According to the report, these audits would examine eight areas of election administration, including "the accuracy of voter rolls and compliance with list maintenance requirements," procedures for testing voting equipment, records of ballots distributed and tabulated, chain of custody documentation, and compliance with state and federal laws regarding voter contact and assistance. The bill specifies that "no findings in audits under this section shall be used as grounds to challenge the final result of an election," making clear the audits are about identifying problems to fix, not overturning outcomes. The State Board of Elections, county boards, and the Department of Motor Vehicles must cooperate and provide records access to complete the audits, with final reports going to the governor and the Joint Legislative Elections Oversight Committee.
The report explains that while the State Auditor already has authority to conduct election performance audits under existing state law, the bill's goal is "to set legislative expectations of what that audit would entail." The audits would be conducted after elections are certified and are designed to create "a cycle of continuous improvement of our election system between elections." The bill also addresses concerns about ballot counting from unverifiable voter registrations by requiring county officials to mail address verifications within two business days of receiving registration applications, with a second verification sent the next business day if the first is returned as undeliverable. Jackson notes this responds to problems created by a 2025 court settlement that could allow ballots to be counted from registrations later found unverifiable.
The report concludes that "most of the provisions in the bill, old and new, will improve North Carolina's elections and make them more secure." The bill could move through the Rules Committee to a floor vote as soon as the afternoon of June 16, making it one of the fastest-moving election reform packages in recent state legislative history. For voters and election officials alike, the performance audit requirement represents a new layer of accountability designed to catch problems before they become crises.