Activist NC Judge with History Partisan Rulings Excuses Dems Midstream Absentee Ballot Rule Changes, Republicans Respond

RALEIGH – A North Carolina Judge, Bryan Collins, has given the ‘A OK’ to absentee ballot rule changes in a ruling that wreaks of judicial activism.

Democrat Attorney General Josh Stein gloated of the political assist from Judge Collins:

The ‘collusion’ in question caused the only two Republican members of the N.C. State Board of Elections to resign over what they say was deception by, and collusion between, Democrat Board members, the Democrat state attorney general, and an ultra-partisan Democrat attorney, to loosen absentee ballot rules, even after hundreds of thousands of citizens had already cast votes in the 2020 election.

This is not the first time Judge Collins has given a political lift to the partisan moves of Democrats. This is the same judge that last year ruled two Constitutional Amendments, Voter ID and Tax Cap amendments, which were approved by a majority of North Carolina voters via ballot referenda, were ‘null and void’ because the General Assembly that placed the referenda on the election ballot was ‘illegitimate’ on account of gerrymandering.

Judge Collins was rebuked strongly, and overturned unanimously, by a higher court for this tortured legal opinion.

That fact was not lost on N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), who assured North Carolinians that the latest activist judicial opinion would be immediately appealed:

A bipartisan supermajority agreed on the law governing this election months ago. The secretive effort by Attorney General Josh Stein and the N.C. State Board of Elections to rewrite that law while voting is underway is wrong, inappropriate, and creating chaos. #ncpol

— Senator Phil Berger (@SenatorBerger) October 2, 2020

Judge Collins, who issued a ruling last year trying to deem the entire legislature a ‘usurper body,’ unsurprisingly sided with unelected Democrats in their effort to rewrite election law while voting is already underway. #ncpol

— Senator Phil Berger (@SenatorBerger) October 2, 2020

We expected this to happen and will immediately appeal. Collins’s lawless ruling last year was overturned unanimously on appeal, and we expect the same result this time. #ncpol

— Senator Phil Berger (@SenatorBerger) October 2, 2020

We will not stop fighting to uphold the law, which a bipartisan supermajority enacted earlier this year, that protects against absentee ballot fraud. #ncpol

— Senator Phil Berger (@SenatorBerger) October 2, 2020

Absentee ballot fraud, mind you, that is not just a hypothetical; such fraud was the focus of a national spotlight on North Carolina’s 9th Congressional district race in 2018 that lead to an investigation, nullifying of election results, and a special election do-over.

While that appeal is in the works, this is not the only lawsuit over the shenanigans at the State Board of Elections. In another federal case that resulted in a federal judge previously directing the Board to remedy ‘cures’ for ballots with incomplete information, the judge reiterated last week that his ruling DID NOT allow for the elimination of the witness requirement. After learning of the Board’s ‘settlement’ that effectively did just that, the federal judge called attorneys back to explain.

We should learn more about the state court appeal, and the federal case, this week.