RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The North Carolina legislature on Tuesday began overriding two of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s latest vetoes as Republican senators dispatched his objections to changes to early in-person voting and to restrictions on litigation involving large livestock operations.
The state Senate voted 34-12 to override the veto of the early-voting legislation and 37-9 on the veto of the General Assembly’s annual farm bill, which contains rules that all but block neighbors of hog farms from suing due to odors and on other nuisance grounds.
The measures now return to the House, where these and five other vetoed bills were expected to get voted on Wednesday.
The early voting measure adjusts the current 17-day period by eliminating the final day, which is now always scheduled for the Saturday before a primary or Election Day. The bill moves up the start date by one day instead and requires all early-voting sites to be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays.
Democrats and other voting rights advocates say the measure would eliminate one of the most popular days to cast ballots and discourage other counties from paying to operate sites on weekends. Last Saturday, voters leading up to Election Day 2016 also were disproportionately black compared to their percentage of all registered voters, according to Democracy North Carolina.
“True democracy should make it easier for people to vote, not harder,” Cooper said in his veto message.
Republican supporters argue the change will actually improve the ability of citizens to vote before or after work.
“This bill increases early voting,” Sen. Ralph Hise of Mitchell County before the override occurred on a party-line vote.
Three Democrats actually joined all Senate Republicans in voting to override the farm bill . The agriculture industry pushed for the litigation provisions following recent results of the first of nearly two dozen lawsuits filed against pork producers. Smithfield Foods was hit with a nearly $51 million verdict - cut to about $3 million because of state limits on punitive damages.
Bill supporters say without it litigation could force farmers out of business, even when they follow state and federal regulations, said GOP Sen. Brent Jackson of Sampson County, the chief sponsor.
“They do it right, and they still get sued,” Jackson said.
Cooper said in his veto that while agriculture is vital to North Carolina’s economy, “our laws must balance the needs of businesses versus property rights. Giving one industry special treatment at the expense of its neighbors is unfair.”
The governor vetoed seven of the 45 bills on his desk that had to be acted upon by midnight Monday. He signed 32 bills, but six others automatically become law because he neither signed nor vetoed them.
One of the six altered the details on when a governor fills a U.S. Senate vacancy. The law now requires the governor to appoint someone from a list of three people recommended by the state party with which the outgoing senator was affiliated. Previous law said the governor’s choice until the next statewide election only had to have the same affiliation as the predecessor.
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