By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Changes in the laws governing North Carolina’s elections have brought new challenges and opportunities with the new year, Kellie Harris Hopkins told the Beaufort County Republican Men’s Club.
“This is one of the reasons I love my job because it’s never the same,” Hopkins, the county’s elections director, said Thursday night during the club’s meeting in Washington.
Up until Jan. 1, 17-year-olds statewide could register to vote provided they turned 18 at least 60 days before the primary election, she said.
A law passed by the N.C. General Assembly now makes it legal for 16- or 17-year-olds to “preregister,” even if they don’t turn 18 before the election, Hopkins related.
This doesn’t mean that 16- or 17-year-olds will be allowed to vote or that the legal voting age has been lowered, she advised.
The preregistrations will be held in a queue until the normal 60-day period triggers the release of the teens’ voter-registration cards, Hopkins said.
The altered law will have a big effect on local boards of elections, which will need to institute new record-tracking systems to keep up with the fresh registrants, she said.
Providing information about preregistration is a required part of social-studies curricula in state high schools, Hopkins added.
Responding to a club member’s question about why lawmakers saw fit to allow preregistration, she replied, “I think that they believe it will increase voter participation among younger folks. I don’t know that that’s the case.”
She indicated her concern is that teenagers’ addresses tend to change after high-school graduation, making it harder to keep voting records current.
Larry Britt, chairman of the Beaufort County Republican Party, asked if political parties could be involved in recruiting the youths targeted by the law change.
Hopkins said that wasn’t addressed in the legislation. Hopkins added that she doesn’t see an issue with party recruitment since the teens will have to register with one of the major parties or choose to sign up as unaffiliated voters.
Signaling evident anxiety about the matter, Hood Richardson, a Republican Beaufort County commissioner, predicted there will be “dog fights” in area schools because of preregistration.
“Most of those teachers are liberal Democrats,” Richardson said. “I can attest to that.”
Hopkins said legislators apparently left it up to schools to set their rules for conveying preregistration information.
Al Klemm, another Republican Beaufort County commissioner, commented that he would have thought the state would be more interested in improving the high-school graduation rate than in preregistering teens.
Hopkins also updated the club’s 40 or so members and guests on changes in state campaign-finance law.
Until this year, candidates who didn’t plan to spend more than $3,000 during an election cycle had to sign a pledge to that effect, she said.
As of Jan. 1, the threshold was dropped from $3,000 to $1,000, Hopkins shared.
“That’s going to add a whole lot of work in my office because we have to audit these things,” she stated.
A “handful” of Beaufort County commissioner candidates have spent more than $3,000 in past campaigns, according to Hopkins, adding that she doesn’t know of a single commissioner candidate who doesn’t spend $1,000 on his or her race.
In addition, disclosure of minimum contributions evolved with the start of 2010, Hopkins continued.
At one time, people who contributed less than $100 to a campaign didn’t see their names listed on campaign reports, which are public records.
From Jan. 1 on, anyone who gives more than $50 to a candidate will have his or her name, occupation and address listed on the candidate’s campaign report, she said.
Contributors still may give up to $50 in an election cycle and not have their names disclosed.
“You have to know where every dollar comes from,” Hopkins told the crowd.
The maximum contribution any person may make to a candidate during a cycle remains at $4,000, she said. People still may give contributions to a political party which, in turn, may pass that money along to a candidate, she pointed out.
“That’s that soft money,” she said.