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After clearing a committee hurdle late last week, SB 655 , made it onto the calendar of the North Carolina House. When considered on the floor of the chamber this morning, the bill was amended with just one dissenting vote and subsequently passed by a 71-46 margin largely along party lines (with Republicans in favor of the amended bill). That is a far different picture than the contrasting unanimous vote on the original legislation in late April. But the amendment was not driving the difference across chambers. The change added by the state House was a relatively noncontroversial tweak to the date on which the proposed law would take effect. Rather than launching upon the signature of the governor, the law in the amended bill would not kick in until January 2019. The practical effect of the move is to exempt the 2018 primary elections, keeping that consolidated primary election during the midterms next year in May. While the focus at FHQ is often on the presidential primaries, this...

A North Carolina House committee advanced on June 1 a bill to further specify the date of the presidential primary election in the Tar Heel state.  With no debate on the measure, the House Elections and Ethics Law Committee favorably reported SB 655  after testimony from the state Senate sponsor of the legislation. State Senator Andrew Brock (R-34th, Davie, Rowan) has over the last several election cycles introduced legislation to move the North Carolina presidential primary to an earlier and more influential position on the presidential primary calendar. However, those moves often fell flat.  The legislative receptivity to a change in 2017, though, is different for at least two reasons.  First, the omnibus elections legislation the newly Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly passed in 2013 altered the date of the primary for the first time since 1988 . But the change was conditional . May was left as the default position unless the earliest South C...