McCrory: Bills reorganize a broken election process

NORTH CAROLINA (WECT) - North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said he signed legislation that stripped governor-elect Roy Cooper of much of his power to "reorganize a broken election process, bringing stronger ethics and a fair and transparent system to ensure consistent application of rules and procedures across our state."

The Republican-led state legislature passed two bills last week. One merges the State Ethics Commission and State Board of Elections into one panel and prevents Cooper from putting a Democratic majority on the state elections board.

The second forces Cooper's Cabinet choices to get Senate confirmation.

McCrory's full statement on House Bill 17:

Last week, I was extremely proud of our bipartisan effort to enact much needed relief to help our citizens recovering from Hurricane Matthew.

I also signed legislation to reorganize a broken election process, bringing stronger ethics and a fair and transparent system to ensure consistent application of rules and procedures across our state.

During the past week as the legislature called themselves back into session, I was actively working as your governor to protect the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government. Examples include discouraging proposed legislation moving major departments including Information Technology and Commerce outside of the governor's authority. I also successfully worked to deter any efforts to expand the composition of our Supreme Court.

Due to these efforts, I have come to realize that the current changes to executive authority in House Bill 17 have been greatly exaggerated by misleading TV ads, paid protesters and state and national media outlets.

This bill enhances state employee policies, transfers school safety programs to the education department, allows our state legislature to make university trustee appointments, and clarifies the roles and organizational structure of the superintendent of public instruction and board of education - hardly extreme changes.

My major disagreement with this bill is requiring confirmation of cabinet secretaries. This is wrong and short-sighted and needs to be resolved through the leadership skills of the governor-elect working with the legislature beginning in January. With this in mind, I will sign House Bill 17.

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