North Carolina 2018 ballot measures

Elections in North Carolina, 2018

• General election: Nov. 6
• Voter registration deadline: Oct. 12
• Early voting: Oct. 17 - Nov. 3
• Absentee voting deadline: Nov. 6

• Online registration: No
• Same-day registration: No
• Voter ID: No
• Poll times: 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

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2018 North Carolina Ballot Measures
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In 2018, six statewide ballot measures were certified for the ballot in North Carolina on November 6, 2018. Voters approved four and rejected two of the ballot measures.

HIGHLIGHTS

Voters rejected two constitutional amendments—Legislative Appointments to Elections Board Amendment and Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment—that were part of a broader conflict between the GOP-controlled North Carolina State Legislature and Gov. Roy Cooper (D).

Voters approved the Voter ID Amendment and Income Tax Cap Amendment. On February 22, 2019, a Wake County Superior Court judge ruled that the amendments were invalid because the legislature that referred the amendments, according to a federal court ruling, included districts that were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.

On April 28, 2023, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned previous rulings preventing the amendment from taking effect, therefore allowing voter ID laws to take effect.

On the ballot

Type	Title	Subject	Description	Result
LRCA	Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment	Hunting	Creates a constitutional right to hunt and fish	a
LRCA	Marsy's Law Amendment	Law Enforcement	Expands the constitutional rights of crime victims	a
LRCA	Income Tax Cap Amendment	Taxes	Changes cap on income tax from 10 percent to 7 percent	a ot
LRCA	Voter ID Amendment	Elections	Requires a photo ID to vote in person	a
LRCA	Legislative Appointments to Elections Board and Commissions Amendment	Legislature	Makes the legislature responsible for appointments to election board	d
LRCA	Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment	Judiciary	Creates a process, involving a commission, legislature, and governor to appoint to vacant state judicial seats	d

Court rulings

NAACP and Clear Air Carolina v. Moore and Berger

On August 6, 2018, the North Carolina NAACP and Clean Air Carolina sued the General Assembly of North Carolina in the Wake County Superior Court. The plaintiffs asked for four constitutional amendments—the Legislative Appointments to Elections Board and Commissions Amendment, Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment, Voter ID Amendment, and Income Tax Cap Amendment—to be removed from the ballot. The case was not decided before the election; voters approved the Voter ID Amendment and the Income Tax Cap Amendment, and voters rejected the Legislative Appointments to Commissions Amendment and the Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment.

The NAACP and Clean Air Carolina said that since some lawmakers were elected from districts that a federal court ruled were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, the existing North Carolina State Legislature was a usurper legislature. Therefore, the plaintiffs argued that the constitutional amendments should be invalidated.

Senate President Phil Berger (R-30) responded, "We predicted Democratic activists would launch absurd legal attacks to keep the voters from deciding on their own Constitution, but this one really jumps the shark. This absurd argument – which has already been rejected in federal court – is a sad and desperate attempt to stop North Carolina voters from joining 34 other states in requiring identification when casting a ballot."

On February 22, 2019, Judge Bryan Collins ruled in favor of the NAACP and Clean Air Carolina, striking down the Voter ID Amendment and the Income Tax Cap Amendment. Judge Collins said, "Thus, the unconstitutional racial gerrymander tainted the three-fifths majorities required by the state Constitution before an amendment proposal can be submitted to the people for a vote, breaking the requisite chain of popular sovereignty between North Carolina citizens and their representatives. … Accordingly, the constitutional amendments placed on the ballot on November 6, 2018 were approved by a General Assembly that did not represent the people of North Carolina."

Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, president of the NC NAACP, responded to the ruling, stating, "We are delighted that the acts of the previous majority, which came to power through the use of racially discriminatory maps, have been checked. The prior General Assembly’s attempt to use its ill-gotten power to enshrine a racist photo voter ID requirement in the state constitution was particularly egregious, and we applaud the court for invalidating these attempts at unconstitutional overreach." Senate President Berger also responded, saying, "We are duty-bound to appeal this absurd decision. The prospect of invalidating 18 months of laws is the definition of chaos and confusion. Based on tonight’s opinion and others over the past several years, it appears the idea of judicial restraint has completely left the state of North Carolina."

On February 25, 2019, the defendants—Senate President Phil Berger and House Speaker Timothy K. Moore—appealed the case to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

On April 29, 2019, the North Carolina NAACP petitioned the North Carolina Supreme Court—instead of the North Carolina Court of Appeals—to directly review the case. In mid-June, the North Carolina Supreme Court declined to hear the case before it was heard by the court of appeals.

On July 5, 2019, a panel of three judges ruled 2-1 to temporarily overturn the lower court's injunction against the enforcement of the amendment but allow the appeal to continue. The ruling allows the implementation of the voter ID requirement while the case is being resolved.

Arguments were heard in the appeal case on October 31, 2019.

On September 15, 2020, the court of appeals reversed in a 2-1 decision Judge Collin's ruling that had invalidated the constitutional amendments. Judge Chris Dillon said, "It is simply beyond our power to thwart the otherwise lawful exercise of constitutional power by our legislative branch to pass bills proposing amendments." The NAACP appealed the decision to the North Carolina Supreme Court on October 21, 2020.

On August 19, 2022, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the state legislature may not have the authority to place state constitutional amendments on the ballot because lawmakers were elected from a district map that was found to be "unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered." In the 4-3 decision, the majority opinion said, "[T]he potentially transformative consequences of amendments that could change basic tenets of our constitutional system of government warrant heightened scrutiny of amendments enacted through a process that required the participation of legislators whose claim to represent the people’s will has been disputed." The court ordered the case back to the Superior Court for review.

Federal lawsuit

On December 31, 2019, U.S. District Judge Loretta C. Biggs ruled in favor of the NAACP and blocked the implementation of the voter ID requirement for the March 3 primary elections. In the conclusion of Biggs' opinion, she said, "[T]he Court concludes that Plaintiffs have demonstrated a clear likelihood of success on the merits of their discriminatory intent claims for at least the voter ID and ballot-challenge provisions of S.B. 824." Judge Biggs upheld the provision of S.B. 824 that increase the number of poll-observers from each party.

In response to the ruling, Senate President Berger said, "The voters saw the need for voter ID and approved the constitutional amendment. The legislature, acting on the will of the people, enacted one of the broadest voter ID laws in the nation. Now this lawsuit, and last-minute ruling, have sowed additional discord and confusion about the voting process."

On December 2, 2020, a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously reversed the 2019 injunction against the voter ID law. Circuit Judge Julius Richardson wrote, "A legislature’s past acts do not condemn the acts of a later legislature, which we must presume acts in good faith." Republican House Speaker Tim Moore (R) responded to the ruling saying, "Now that a federal appeals court has approved North Carolina’s voter ID law and constitutional amendment, they must be implemented for the next election cycle in our state."

Summary of campaign contributions

See also: Ballot measure campaign finance, 2018

The following chart illustrates how much support and opposition committees had amassed in campaign contributions for each measure on the ballot:

Note: Two PACs were registered in opposition to all six of the ballot measures.

Ballot Measure:	Support contributions:	Opposition contributions:	Outcome:
North Carolina Elections Board Amendment	$0.00	$9,266,902.46	d
North Carolina Judicial Selection Amendment	$0.00	$9,266,902.46	d
North Carolina Voter ID Amendment	$673,500.00	$9,266,902.46	a
North Carolina Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment	$0.00	$9,266,902.46	a
North Carolina Marsy's Law Amendment	$8,047,000.00	$9,266,902.46	a

Getting measures on the ballot

North Carolina does not allow any form of citizen-initiated ballot measures, so all ballot measures must be referred by the legislature. In order for the legislature to put a proposed amendment on the ballot, it must be approved by a 60 percent majority of both the legislative chambers. Once on the ballot, constitutional amendments must be approved by a majority of the electorate.

Historical context

Statistics

See also: List of North Carolina ballot measures

• A total of 16 measures appeared on statewide ballots between 1996 and 2016.
• From 1996 to 2016, an average of between one and two measures appeared on the ballot during even-numbered years in North Carolina.
• The number of measures appearing on even-year statewide ballots between 1996 and 2016 ranged from zero to five.
• Between 1996 and 2016, 100 percent (16 of 16) of statewide ballots were approved by voters, and zero percent (0 of 16) were defeated.

North Carolina statewide general election ballot measures, 1996-2016
Total number	Approved	Percent approved	Defeated	Percent defeated	Annual average	Annual median	Annual minimum	Annual maximum
16	16	100.00%	0	0.00%	1.5	1.0	0	5

Conflict between Gov. Cooper and state General Assembly

See also: Conflicts between Gov. Roy Cooper and the General Assembly of North Carolina

North Carolina Legislative Conflicts

2016 North Carolina election

Governor of North Carolina

General Assembly of North Carolina

State Senate • State House

North Carolina Supreme Court

North Carolina Court of Appeals

2018 constitutional amendments

Since the 2016 election, North Carolina's executive and legislative branches have been in an almost constant state of conflict. The Republican-controlled General Assembly of North Carolina has passed a series of bills that Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has argued were intended to undermine his authority as governor. Republicans, meanwhile, insist that the legislation is restoring power to the legislature that was previously taken away by earlier Democratic administrations. This back-and-forth between Cooper and the legislature has resulted in a series of vetoes, veto overrides, and lawsuits, some of which predate Cooper's swearing-in on January 1, 2017. The Republican supermajorities in each chamber of the legislature allow Republicans to pass legislation and override gubernatorial vetoes with little intervention by Democrats.

In 1996, North Carolina became the last state in the country to grant veto power to the governor. As of March 2019, North Carolina governors had vetoed 63 bills since 1997. Thirty-nine of those bills were overridden by the legislature. In the 2017-2018 legislative session, the Republican-controlled legislature used its veto-proof majority to override 23 of the 28 vetoes issued by Gov. Cooper. That is the most that the North Carolina legislature has ever overridden in a legislative session.

In 2018, voters in North Carolina decided six constitutional amendments—the most on the ballot in a single year since 1982. Two of the constitutional amendments—the Legislative Appointments to Elections Board and Commissions Amendment and Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment—represent a conflict between the executive and legislative branches over powers to appoint judges and state commission members. An additional two constitutional amendments—Voter ID Amendment and Income Tax Cap Amendment—represent a broader conflict between Democrats and Republicans in North Carolina.

Timeline

The following timeline outlines how 2018's constitutional amendments were involved in the conflict between Gov. Roy Cooper and the General Assembly of North Carolina.

Passage of constitutional amendments

• June 27, 2018: The General Assembly of North Carolina referred the Legislative Appointments to Elections Board and Commissions Amendment to the ballot for the election on November 6, 2018. More than 99 percent (106/107) of legislative Republicans supported the amendment. One legislative Democrat supported the amendment.

• June 28, 2018: The General Assembly of North Carolina referred the Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment to the ballot for the election on November 6, 2018. Two Republicans voted against the amendment, meaning 106 of 108 non-absent Republicans voted for the amendment. No Democrats supported the amendment.

• July 10, 2018: Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said the Legislative Appointments to Elections Board and Commissions Amendment and Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment, along with the Voter ID Amendment and Income Tax Cap Amendment, were bad for North Carolina.

Original constitutional amendments in the conflict between North Carolina Gov. Cooper and state legislature
Measure	Description	Republicans	Democrats	Gov. Cooper
Midterm Judicial Vacancies Amendment	remove the governor's power to fill judicial vacancies and, instead, require a commission to develop a list of candidates, legislators to narrow the list down to two candidates, and the governor selecting the final nominee.	• Total: 106/107 (99.1%) • Senate: 33/33 • House: 73/74	• Total: 1/59 (1.7%) • Senate: 1/14 • House: 0/44
Legislative Appointments to State Boards Amendment	remove the governor's power to make appointments to the elections and ethics board, meaning legislative leaders would make all eight appointments to the board, and provide that the legislature controls the powers, duties, appointments, and terms of office for state boards and commissions	• Total: 106/108 (98.2%) • Senate: 32/33 • House: 74/75	• Total: 0/56 (0.0%) • Senate: 0/13 • House: 0/43

Passage of legislation on ballot captions

• July 21, 2018: Rep. David Lewis (R-53) wrote a letter to House Speaker Tim Moore (R-111) asking for a special session to address the Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission's powers and have the legislature wrote the ballot measures' captions.
  • The Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission, which includes two Democrats—Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Attorney General Josh Stein—and one Republican—legislative services officer Paul Coble—is responsible for preparing a short caption reflecting the contents for each constitutional amendment using simple and common language, according to state law passed in 2016. The Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement spokesperson, Patrick Gannon, said ballots will include "the short caption provided by the Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission, as well as the ‘For’ or ‘Against’ language included in the legislation approving the amendments for the ballots."
  • Lewis wrote, "It appears that the commission may be falling to outside political pressure, contemplating politicizing the title-crafting process, including using long sentences or negative language in order to hurt the amendments' chances of passing."
  • Secretary of State Marshall responded to Lewis' letter asking for a special session, saying, "I can speak for myself, I have had no, none outside pressure on this process."

• July 23, 2018: House Speaker Tim Moore (R-111) and Senate President Phil Berger (R-26) announced a special legislative session to convene on July 24, 2018.

• July 24, 2018: The General Assembly of North Carolina passed House Bill 3 (HB 3), which removed the Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission's power to write ballot captions. HB 3 also made the ballot captions for each of the constitutional amendments the words Constitutional Amendment.
  • In the state Senate, one Democrat—Joel Ford (D-36)—voted with 26 Republicans to approve HB 3. Two Republicans—Wesley Meredith (R-19) and Trudy Wade (R-27)—voted with 12 Democrats to oppose HB 3.
  • In the state House, the vote was 67-36. Republicans voted to pass HB 3, while Democrats voted against the legislation.

• July 27, 2018: Gov. Cooper (D) vetoes HB 3. He veto message said, "These proposed constitutional amendments would dramatically weaken our system of checks and balances. The proposed amendments also use misleading and deceptive terms to describe them on the ballot. [HB 3] compounds those problems by stopping additional information that may more accurately describe the proposed amendments on the ballot."
  • House Speaker Moore (R-111) and Senate President Berger (R-26) responded to the veto message, stating, "We will override these vetoes to deliver clear and consistent voter information on ballots this November."
  • Speaker Moore and President Berger also said the legislature would meet on August 4, 2018, to vote on overriding Gov. Cooper's veto.

• July 31, 2018: The Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission held a meeting to discuss captions for the constitutional amendments. However, state law required the commission's three members to be present to approve captions. Secretary of State Marshall (D) and Attorney General Stein (D) were present but legislative services officer Paul Coble (R) was not. Coble notified Marshall and Stein that he would be absent until the following week.

• August 4, 2018: The General Assembly of North Carolina voted to override Gov. Cooper's veto of HB 3. A three-fifths vote (60 percent) of present legislators in each chamber was needed to override the veto.
  • In the state Senate, one Democrat—Joel Ford (D-36)—voted with 27 Republicans to override the veto. No Republicans voted with the 12 Democrats to override the veto. As nine members were absent, 24 votes were needed to override the veto.
  • In the state House, the vote was 70-39. Republicans voted to pass HB 3, while Democrats voted against the legislation. As 11 members were absent, 65 votes were needed to override the veto.

Lawsuits regarding original constitutional amendments

• August 6, 2018: Gov. Cooper (D) sued the General Assembly of North Carolina in the Wake County Superior Court. Gov. Cooper asked the court to remove two constitutional amendments—the Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment and Legislative Appointments to Elections Board and Commissions Amendment—from the ballot. He said the amendments were a scheme to "eliminate the separation of powers, usurp the governor's executive authority and seize control of the appointment of every member of virtually every board and commission in all three branches of state government." He said the legislature's written questions for the amendments were false and misleading.
  • Joseph Kyzer, a spokesperson for House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Phil Berger, responded, "Political litigation is the governor's idea of leadership, and the people of North Carolina are becoming accustomed to Cooper's use of the court system to circumvent their support of popular legislative proposals."

• August 6, 2018: The North Carolina NAACP and Clean Air Carolina sued the state legislature in the Wake County Superior Court. The plaintiffs asked for four constitutional amendments—the Legislative Appointments to Elections Board and Commissions Amendment, Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment, Voter ID Amendment, and Income Tax Cap Amendment—to be removed from the ballot. The NAACP and Clean Air Carolina said that since some lawmakers were elected from districts that a federal court ruled were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, the existing North Carolina State Legislature was a usurper legislature. Therefore, the constitutional amendments should be invalidated.
  • Senate President Phil Berger responded, "We predicted Democratic activists would launch absurd legal attacks to keep the voters from deciding on their own Constitution, but this one really jumps the shark. This absurd argument – which has already been rejected in federal court – is a sad and desperate attempt to stop North Carolina voters from joining 34 other states in requiring identification when casting a ballot."

• August 15, 2018: A three-judge panel—Judges Forrest D. Bridges, Thomas H. Lock and Jeffery Carpenter—heard arguments in both lawsuits.

• August 21, 2018: The judges dismissed the litigation to remove the Voter ID Amendment and Income Tax Cap Amendment from the ballot.

• August 21, 2018: The panel of judges, in a two-to-one decision, blocked the Legislative Appointments to Elections Board and Commissions Amendment and Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment from appearing on the ballot in November 2018. Judges Forrest D. Bridges, a Democrat, and Thomas H. Lock, who is unaffiliated, signed the decision to remove the amendments, while Judge Jeffery Carpenter, a Republican, dissented. According to Judges Bridges and Lock, the ballot language that the legislature included for the two amendments would not inform voters as to the amendments' effects and allow voters to form an intelligent opinion.
  • Pat Ryan, a spokesperson for Senate President Berger, described the ruling as "uncharted territory for judicial activism and sets a dangerous precedent when two judges take away the rights of (millions of) people to vote on what their constitution." He said Senate President Berger and House Speaker Moore's legal team was reviewing their options.
  • Ford Porter, a spokesperson for Gov. Cooper, responded to the ruling, saying, "Misleading voters about the true impact of amendments that threaten our fundamental separation of powers is wrong, as the ruling recognizes."

Legislation to replace the ballot language

• August 24, 2018: House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Phil Berger called a special session of the General Assembly of North Carolina to replace the two ballot measures that the three-judge panel blocked from appearing on the ballot in November on August 21. Moore said, "We hope this will end the unnecessary litigation and allow our state to move forward with the democratic process to let the people decide these issues for themselves."

• August 24, 2018: The state House approved new versions of the two constitutional amendments.
  • The Legislative Appointments to Elections Board and Commissions Amendment was rewritten to affect just the elections board, rather than the elections board and all other commissions. The vote was along partisan lines, with Republicans supporting and Democrats opposing the amendment.
  • House Republicans approved the Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment with different ballot ballot language than the original. Democrats, along with one Republican, voted against the amendment.

• August 27, 2018: The state Senate approved new versions of the two constitutional amendments.
  • Senate Republicans, along with one Democrat, approved the rewritten Legislative Appointments to Elections Board Amendment.
  • Senate Republicans, along with one Democrat, approved the rewritten Judicial Selection for Midterm Vacancies Amendment.

• August 27, 2018: Gov. Roy Cooper's (D) spokesperson Ford Porter responded to the passage of the revised amendments, saying, "Yes, you can expect further legal action. Less than a week before ballots are to be printed, rather than repeal their old misleading amendments, Republicans have passed more misleading amendments to erode checks and balances in our state’s constitution."

Revised constitutional amendments in the conflict between North Carolina Gov. Cooper and state legislature
Measure	Description	Republicans	Democrats	Gov. Cooper
Midterm Judicial Vacancies Amendment	remove the governor's power to fill judicial vacancies and, instead, require a commission to develop a list of candidates, legislators to narrow the list down to two candidates, and the governor selecting the final nominee.	• Total: 103/104 (99.04%) • Senate: 31/31 • House: 72/73	• Total: 1/48 (2.08%) • Senate: 1/14 • House: 0/34
Legislative Appointments to Elections Board Amendment	remove the governor's power to make appointments to the elections and ethics board, meaning legislative leaders would make all eight appointments to the board	• Total: 104/104 (100.00%) • Senate: 31/31 • House: 73/73	• Total: 1/48 (2.08%) • Senate: 14/15 • House: 33/33

Lawsuits regarding revised constitutional amendments

• August 29, 2018: Gov. Roy Cooper (D) filed litigation against the revised constitutional amendments. He said, "The General Assembly has now retreated to a new position less extreme than its original one, but the General Assembly's new position is still unconstitutional – the new ballot questions are still misleading, and they still fail to provide the voters with the information they need to make an intelligent decision on the wisdom of the new proposed amendments."
  • Rep. David Lewis (R-53) and Sen. Ralph Hise (R-47) responded to the governor's lawsuit, stating, "This General Assembly, complied, in exacting detail, with a court opinion with which it disagreed. Beyond all the name-calling and drama, Governor Cooper can't point to a single legitimate reason why the new amendments don't meet that court's standard, nor does he even really care about that."

• August 31, 2018: The same three-judge panel—Judges Forrest D. Bridges, Thomas H. Lock and Jeffery Carpenter—that struck down the earlier amendments affirmed that the rewritten constitutional amendments could appear on the ballot. Gov. Cooper appealed the decision to the North Carolina Supreme Court.

• September 4, 2018: The North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the panel's decision in a one-sentence ruling, allowing the constitutional amendments to remain on the ballot for the general election on November 6, 2018.

Not on the ballot

See also: Proposed ballot measures that were not on a ballot

Type	Title	Subject	Description	Result
LRCA	Right to Work Amendment	Unions	Right to work in state constitution
LRCA	Two Term Limit for Governor and Lieutenant Governor Amendment	State Exec	Limit governor to two terms
LRCA	Repeal Voter Literacy Requirement Amendment	Suffrage	Repeal voter literacy test from constitution
LRCA	Prohibit Eminent Domain for Non-Public Use Amendment	Eminent Domain	Prohibit eminent domain of private properties for non-public use

See also

• 2018 ballot measures
• List of North Carolina ballot measures
• North Carolina Legislature