Gov. Josh Stein on Monday vetoed two controversial bills: one that proposes a series of changes to the election process, and another that modifies disciplinary procedures for judges in North Carolina.

“Our right to vote is precious. It is the fundamental right that underpins all the other rights that we possess. That’s why I will always protect you and your right to vote and that’s why today I veto this anti-voter bill,” Stein said as he vetoed HB958 in his Executive Mansion surrounded by Democratic lawmakers and voting rights advocates.

HB958 approved by the Republican majority in the Legislature includes a series of modifications to the state’s election laws, including reducing the early voting period for the primaries and special elections, setting a process to remove registered voters who were marked as ineligible through federal databases, and making it easier for anyone to challenge votes after the election.

“The General Assembly wants to make it harder for people to vote and easier to throw out votes they don’t like after Election Day,” Stein said in his veto statement. ” Instead of trying to undermine our democracy to cling to power, the legislature should focus on improving people’s lives and winning elections fair and square.”

Republican leaders in the Legislature vowed to override the veto and accused Stein of putting politics ahead of commonsense election reforms to ensure election security.

“Gov. Stein’s veto of this legislation puts politics ahead of common sense and the peace of mind voters should have when they cast their ballots,” Republican Rep. Hugh Blackwell, one of the bill’s main sponsors, said in a public statement.

Stein asked citizens to call their Representatives to ask them to uphold their veto of HB958.

“This bill passed with a purely Republican partisan vote. Not a single unaffiliated or Democratic representative voted in favor of this bill. We can hold this veto, but we need everyone to show up and to stand up,” the governor said.

HB377’S VETO

Earlier in the day, Stein also vetoed HB 377, which gives North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby, a Republican, the power to suspend without pay any trial judge who is being investigated by the state’s Judicial Standards Commission.

The governor argued that such legislation would have a chilling effect on judicial independence and accused Republican leaders in the Legislature of politicizing the state’s judiciary.

“It is necessary to stop politicizing our courts. An independent judiciary is critical to protecting the rule of law and the rights of all North Carolinians,” Stein said in a statement.

In response, Republican House Speaker Destin Hall vowed to override the governor’s veto.

Republicans control both houses of the Legislature, but to override the governor’s vetoes, they need the vote of at least one Democratic or independent lawmaker in the House of Representatives, where they do not have a supermajority.

In the case of HB958, no Democratic or independent representatives voted in favor of the bill, while in the case of HB 377, independent lawmaker Carla Cunningham voted in favor along with the Republican majority.

The Legislature is in recess but is scheduled to convene on specific dates at least once a month until the end of the year, so it is expected that they can try to override the governor’s vetoes on any of those dates.

Last week, dozens of organizations that advocate for voting rights and democracy, including El Pueblo, sent letters to Stein asking him to veto bills HB 958 and HB377.

On Tuesday, the state legislature passed two bills containing a series of changes to North Carolina’s election laws, including shortening the early voting period for primary elections and removing registered voters flagged as ineligible via federal databases.

The House of Representatives voted in favor of changes previously approved by the Senate, which had split the package of election measures into two separate bills: HB958 and HB834.

HB958 passed along party lines with 62 votes in favor and 46 against, while HB834 passed with 74 votes in favor and 35 against, garnering support from 11 Democrats.

Both bills now head to the office of Democratic Governor Josh Stein. He has publicly opposed the election changes pushed by the legislature’s Republican majority, strongly suggesting he may veto them.

“HB 958 makes it harder for people to vote and easier for partisans to throw out votes after the election is over when they don’t like the results.,” Stein wrote on X prior to the final House vote.

Key election changes approved include the following:

• Reducing the early voting period from 17 to 10 days for primary elections, primary runoffs, and special elections.
• Requiring State Auditor Dave Boliek to conduct random post-election audits at his discretion.
• Using federal databases and information from other states to identify deceased individuals and remove them from the voter rolls.
• Removing individuals identified as potential non-citizens via federal databases from the voter rolls.
• Expanding the process for challenging ballots.
• Reducing transparency in campaign finance by allowing more information regarding campaign donors to remain confidential.
• Require a longer waiting period for individuals switching political parties before they can run for office representing their new party.
• Allowing judicial review of decisions made by the State Board of Elections.

Shortly before the final vote on these electoral changes, the Speaker of the House, Republican Destin Hall, ordered the removal from the gallery of a group of people protesting the measure while chanting, “The people united will never be defeated.”

The two bills were sent to the governor’s office. The governor has 10 days to either sign them into law or veto them. If no action is taken, they will become law at the end of that period.

The state House of Representatives on Wednesday overrode four vetoes by the governor and signed into law several pieces of legislation that eliminate diversity and inclusion programs in the state and one that expands the collaboration of state law enforcement agencies with federal immigration authorities. 

This is SB153, which among other measures requires state agencies such as the State Highway Patrol and the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in addition to HB 171, SB 227 and SB 558 that eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in schools, universities, and government agencies, respectively. 

The four bills were unexpectedly voted on nearly a year after they were vetoed by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, even though they remained pending on the calendar throughout the current legislative session. 

The four vetoes were overturned by a vote of 71 to 41 thanks to the absences of two lawmakers, Democrat Shelly Willingham and now independent Carla Cunningham, who were not present at the session despite having participated in the Rules and Operations Committee meeting in the morning. 

The absences of Cunningham and Willingham allowed Republicans to reach the votes necessary to override the vetoes even though they do not have a supermajority in the House of Representatives.  

State law states that overriding a veto requires three-fifths or 60 percent of the votes of the lawmakers present. That is, 72 of the 120 members of the House of Representatives, but with the two absences the required threshold dropped to 71 votes out of the 118 representatives present in the session. 

Three of the four pieces of legislation were automatically signed into law after the vote, except for HB 171, whose veto has not yet been overridden by the Senate, where Republicans do have a veto-proof supermajority, so it is taken for granted that it will also become law, possibly this Thursday. 

The only bill vetoed by Stein that was on the calendar and was not voted on Wednesday was HB 50, which would allow anyone over the age of 18 to carry guns without a permit. 

Following Wednesday’s vote, Stein criticized Legislature leaders for focusing on overriding their vetoes instead of passing the state budget that has been pending for almost 1,000 days.

“As the legislature leaves teachers and law enforcement officers waiting for hard-earned and desperately needed pay raises, members of the General Assembly are stoking the culture wars that divide us rather than fulfilling their long-overdue responsibility of passing a budget,” Stein said in his statement. 

“It’s time for them to do their jobs for the people of North Carolina. Instead, they are overriding my veto on bills to whitewash the diversity that makes our state strong and to take state law enforcement officers away from their existing state duties, forcing them to act as federal immigration agents,” he said. 

Since taking office in 2025, Governor Stein has vetoed a total of 15 bills, 12 of which have been overridden by the Legislature. 

 

The state Legislature this week overrode Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s ninth veto and signed into law a bill that will give tax credits to those who donate to scholarship-granting organizations.

HB 87 became law on Wednesday after the Republican-majority Senate overrode the veto by 30-19 votes, with all Republicans in favor and all Democrats present against.

It was the final vote after the House of Representatives overrode the veto by 73 to 46 votes two weeks ago. The Republican majority reached the necessary votes thanks to the now independent representatives Carla Cunningham and Masid Majeed, who resigned from the Democratic Party after losing the primary elections.

The new legislation will allow the state to participate in a federal program created by President Donald Trump that will provide $1,700 tax credits to those who donate to organizations that provide educational scholarships for private and public-school students.

Gov. Stein vetoed the legislation in August 2025, stating that those tax benefits should apply to donations intended to support public schools, and that he was waiting for more information from the federal government before the state would sign up for the federal program.

On Wednesday, Stein lamented in a statement that the Legislature rushed to enroll North Carolina in the program and criticized legislative leaders for not investing enough in public schools.

“This legislature has dropped North Carolina to second to last in the nation in per public school pupil spending,” Stein said in his statement. ” We need to put more public dollars into our public schools, and I will continue to do everything I can to provide more support for public school kids.”

With the enactment of HB87, the state Legislature has now overridden Stein’s nine vetoes, who since taking office in 2025 has vetoed 15 bills.

The six bills pending a vote have appeared on the legislative calendar since the short session began on April 21, but so far only H87 has been voted on.

The Legislature had not voted on any of the vetoed bills since July of last year, when it overrode eight vetoes.

In the table below, you can see the status of the 15 bills vetoed by Stein so far.

 

Voters in North Carolina will decide in November on two constitutional amendments approved Wednesday by the state Legislature, which seek to limit income and property tax rates in the state. 

One of the amendments, SB 1080, proposes to include in the state constitution a permanent 3.5% cap on the income tax rate starting in 2027.

The current state income tax rate is 3.99%. 

If voters approve this amendment in November, the Legislature will not be able to increase the income tax rate in the future unless another constitutional reform is passed. 

The other constitutional amendment passed Wednesday is HB 1089, which seeks to give the Legislature the power to put limits on local property tax rates that are currently set by local governments. 

The two proposed constitutional amendments were approved by a majority partisan vote in both chambers and will go directly to the November ballot for voters to decide on, since the governor does not have veto power in this type of legislation. 

Reps. Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed, who recently resigned from the Democratic Party after losing the primary, voted in favor of these amendments, giving Republicans the supermajority (73 to 46) they needed in the House of Representatives. 

In the Senate, where Republicans do hold a supermajority, HB 1089 passed Wednesday by a vote of 31 to 15, with the support of Democratic Sen. Dan Blue, while SB 1080 passed Tuesday by a partisan vote of 30 to 18.  

During the debates, Republicans argued that the amendments are intended to provide economic relief to the people of North Carolina in the face of the rising cost of living. 

Democrats have warned that capping tax rates will cause the state and local governments to lose revenue needed to sustain basic services for the population such as schools, health care, safety and emergency assistance.  

A new bill seeks to reduce the early voting period in North Carolina elections to 10 days. 

Senate Bill SB1084, introduced by Republican Senators Mark Hollo, Warren Daniel and Brad Overcash, establishes that the early voting period must begin on the second Thursday before the election and end at 3 p.m. on the Saturday before the election. 

Currently, the early voting period begins on the third Thursday before the election, so the proposed change would reduce the time by a week, from 17 to 10 days. 

SB1084 was sent to the Senate Rules Committee for discussion. 

If approved during the current short session, the proposal would take effect immediately and would be effective for the crucial midterm elections scheduled for November 3. 

Early voting is the most popular form of voter participation in North Carolina. 

In 2024, of the total of 5.7 million people who voted in the presidential election, 4.2 million did so early, according to official data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections. 

A bill would drastically expand the mandatory use of the federal E-Verify system to verify employees’ legal work authorization in North Carolina. 

HB1214, introduced by one of the House majority leaders, Republican Rep. Karl Gillespie (District 120), would require private companies or businesses with 5 or more employees to use E-Verify to verify their employee’s work authorization. Currently, only employers with 25 or more workers are obliged to do so. 

In addition, HB124 extends the use of E-Verify to local government entities such as state agencies, counties, and municipalities that were previously excluded or governed by other rules. 

HB1214 also creates a 30-day cure period for employers who are notified for the first time by the Department of Labor to comply and start using E-Verify. It also establishes new fines ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 for those who don’t comply with the cure period.    

Another provision protects employers who “in good faith” comply with E-Verify from penalties if an employee is found to have submitted fraudulent documentation to obtain their employment. 

The bill also increases oversight by the Labor Commissioner, who could conduct random or risk-based inspections to determine whether employers are complying with the use of E-Verify.  

It also provides a recurring fund of $448,195 to allow the Department of Labor to hire five full-time employees to perform oversight and enforce this act. 

HB1214 passed its first reading in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, May 5, and was sent to the Judiciary 2 Committee. 

A second Democratic lawmaker announced Monday that he is leaving his party’s ranks after losing the primary.  

Rep. Nasif Majeed (District 99, Mecklenburg) said in a statement that he has decided to serve as an independent for the remainder of his final term as a North Carolina legislator after losing the primary. 

“After deep reflection and conversations with constituents across District 99, I have made the decision to disaffiliate from the Democratic Party and serve as an Independent,” Majeed said in his statement. “This decision is rooted in my responsibility to represent people — not party agendas — and to remain grounded in integrity, fairness, and truth.” 

Majeed is the second Democratic lawmaker to disassociate himself from his party, after Carla Cunninham (District 106, Mecklenburg), who since last Friday appears as an independent on both the voter registry and the General Assembly website. 

In announcing his decision, Majeed said he made it because of “growing concerns about political practices” that, in his view, “do not align with transparency and ethical conduct.” 

“Our community deserves leadership that is honest, accountable, and respectful of the democratic process,” Majeed stated. “I have witnessed and experienced actions within the political landscape that I believe could be perceived as misleading or inconsistent with the spirit of fair elections. I cannot, in good conscience, remain aligned where those concerns are not adequately addressed.” 

Majeed, who has represented Mecklenburg in the House of Representatives since 2019, lost the March primary to Veleria Levy following his controversial decision to vote with the Republican majority to override two vetoes by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein.  

With their change of party affiliation, Majeed and Cunningham could give Republicans the supermajority they need to override seven other bills vetoed by Stein that are pending of a vote in the House of Representatives during the current short session. 

“My focus remains unchanged—delivering results for working families, supporting economic opportunity, addressing public safety, and expanding access to affordable housing,” he said. “As an Independent, I am free to evaluate each issue on its merits and advocate without constraint.”