North Carolina House votes on election bills, DEI, and the state budget have driven the 2025–2026 session, with Republicans pushing a 37-page election overhaul toward the floor, overriding four of Governor Josh Stein’s vetoes in a single afternoon on June 24, 2026, and still negotiating a comprehensive budget that the state has gone without since October 2023. The chamber holds 69 Republicans, 49 Democrats, and 2 unaffiliated members, which puts the majority three votes short of the 72 needed to override a veto when every member is present. That gap, and who shows up on any given day, has decided most of the session’s biggest fights.
House Bill 958 and the Election Law Overhaul
House Bill 958, titled “Election Law Changes,” is the most contested measure of the session. Filed April 10, 2025, by Representatives Hugh Blackwell and Stevens, it cleared the House Rules Committee and landed on the House calendar for a floor vote on June 30, 2026. The Rules Committee vote split along party lines with one Republican defection: Rep. Tricia Cotham, who switched parties in 2023, voted no alongside every Democrat. The bill includes a provision requiring candidates to have been registered with a party for a full year before running in that party’s primary, though Cotham did not publicly state her reason for opposing it.
The bill rewrites rules across voter registration, ballot handling, campaign finance, and election administration. Voter registration applicants would need to provide a full Social Security number rather than the last four digits, with enforcement starting January 1, 2027. Military and overseas voters would have to submit photo identification with their ballots and documentation of their most recent North Carolina address with registration applications, and the option to use an affidavit in place of photo ID for military-overseas ballots would be removed. People who have never lived in North Carolina but currently vote here through a parent’s prior residency would lose eligibility in state and local elections.
Ballot processing changes include starting absentee ballot counting on election day at 9:00 a.m. instead of 5:00 p.m. and extending the ballot cure deadline from three days to five days after an election. County boards would have to contact voters about curable deficiencies by phone or email within one business day. The State Board of Elections would run a uniform statewide audit after each election, and the State Auditor would gain authority to audit the general election in any county.
On campaign finance, the donor-disclosure threshold would rise from $100 to $1,000, and the trigger for 48-hour reports of late donations would increase from $1,000 to $2,000. Foreign nationals would be explicitly barred from contributing to political parties or referendum committees.
Several provisions restructure who runs elections and how disputes get litigated. The State Elections Director could designate up to 25 staff as political appointees exempt from the State Human Resources Act. The Attorney General would be removed from legal cases involving the State Board of Elections, and the board could hire private counsel using available funds, with no spending cap and with those communications shielded from public records law. Judicial reviews of board decisions could be filed in the county of the person seeking review rather than defaulting to Wake County Superior Court. Board members at both the state and county levels would be barred from publicly encouraging or promoting voter turnout. The bill also bans ranked choice voting statewide.1WRAL. Election Law Changes – House Rules Committee2UNC School of Government. H 958 Bill Summary3NC Newsline. NC House Elections Bill Adds Requirements for Overseas Voters4WUNC. NC House Sweeping Elections Bill
Governor Stein signaled on June 16, 2026 that he would very likely veto the bill, saying it “erodes trust by injecting more politics into the State Board of Elections and limiting access to the ballot box.”5Carolina Public Press. Negotiations at 11th Hour Could Decide Fate of NC Election Bill Rep. Amos Quick, a Guilford County Democrat, said the bill’s constant revisions create confusion and that North Carolina elections “deserve some normalcy and some level of predictability.” Common Cause North Carolina called the bill “anti-voter,” and Forward Justice senior voting rights counsel Kat Roblez compared the ban on turnout promotion to barring a restaurant from advertising dinner. Senate Republican leader Phil Berger told reporters the bill was “subject to change moment by moment” and that he would wait until the House passed a final version before taking a position.6Raleigh News and Observer. NC House Elections Bill Passes Rules Committee
Whether HB 958 can survive a veto turns on the same arithmetic that shaped the June 24 override session. Rep. Shelly Willingham, an Edgecombe County Democrat with a history of siding with Republicans on overrides, has been identified as a possible swing vote.
The June 24, 2026 Veto Overrides on DEI and Immigration
On June 24, 2026, the House overrode four of Stein’s vetoes in a single afternoon. The override votes succeeded after Rep. Willingham and Rep. Carla Cunningham, an unaffiliated Mecklenburg County member who was formerly a Democrat, left the chamber. Both had attended a House Rules Committee meeting earlier that day but were absent when the floor votes were called. With 118 members present instead of 120, the three-fifths threshold dropped from 72 to 71. All 71 Republicans voted yes; all 47 Democrats and unaffiliated members present voted no. Each of the four bills cleared 71-47.7Carolina Public Press. DEI Immigration Bills Veto Overrides NC House8Carolina Journal. NC House Overrides Stein Vetoes on Immigration, DEI
The four bills:
- House Bill 171 bans DEI mandates in state agencies and requires merit-based hiring and promotions.
- Senate Bill 227 requires public schools to close DEI offices and eliminate related positions and prohibits tax funding for what the bill calls “discriminatory training programs.”
- Senate Bill 558 eliminates DEI programs across the University of North Carolina system and bans the use of diversity statements.
- Senate Bill 153, the NC Border Protection Act, requires state and local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration agents and mandates immigration status verification for recipients of certain state-funded benefits.9The Assembly. House Overrides Stein Vetoes on Immigration, DEI Bills
Speaker Destin Hall limited debate on each override to three minutes per side and said the process was standard, noting that Republican leaders announce planned override votes in advance.10WUNC. House Republicans Override Four of Gov. Stein’s Vetoes Rep. Deb Butler described the session as “very well choreographed.” House Democratic Leader Robert Reives said both absent members understood the consequences of leaving: “They were well aware that by not attending, these bills would be voted on and overridden.”11NC Newsline. NC House Republicans Override Gov. Stein’s Vetoes on Anti-DEI and Pro-ICE Bills Willingham did not respond to requests for comment. Both he and Cunningham had lost their primaries in March 2026, and Willingham’s defeat was attributed largely to voter anger over his history of voting with Republicans on overrides.
One veto survived. The House did not attempt to override Senate Bill 50, which would have allowed concealed carry of firearms without a permit, because two Republicans, Reps. William Brisson and Ted Davis, maintained their opposition and kept the bill short of the needed votes.
The Budget Standoff
North Carolina has not passed a comprehensive budget since October 2023, and it ended 2025 as the only state in the country without one.12NC Newsline. As End of Session Looms, NC Republican Leaders Push Back Expected Budget Date Speaker Hall and Senate leader Berger announced a budget framework in May 2026 that includes salary increases for teachers, law enforcement, and state employees, along with extensions of planned tax cuts and proposed constitutional amendments to lock in lower income tax rates. No bill text had been released as of late June 2026, and the finalization date slipped past mid-June.
An earlier budget vehicle, Senate Bill 257, passed the House 86-20 on third reading in May 2025 but stalled when the Senate voted against concurring with the House substitute, sending the measure to a conference committee.13North Carolina General Assembly. Senate Bill 257 – Appropriations Act To keep Medicaid funded through the end of the fiscal year, the House approved a $319 million Medicaid rebase bill, House Bill 696, in April 2026.14EdNC. State House Dems Call for Budget With Raises for Educators
Other notable House floor votes in June 2026 included Senate Bill 445, a regulatory reform package that passed 85-28, and Senate Bill 730, a ratepayer protection bill addressing data center regulations and baseload power plant requirements, which passed 69-44.15Nelson Mullins. Old North State Report
Why the Vote Count Keeps Deciding Everything
The 2025–2026 session is the first under Speaker Destin Hall, a Caldwell County Republican who previously chaired the House Rules Committee and replaced Tim Moore after Moore left for Congress.16WHQR. NC Legislature 2025 Session – House Speaker, Helene At the session’s start, Hall said he was confident he could maintain a “working supermajority” by seeking bipartisan support from selected Democrats on specific issues. The June 24 overrides showed the second half of that strategy: when 72 affirmative votes are out of reach, 71 can be enough if the right members are not in the room. That math is what Governor Stein’s expected veto of HB 958 will meet, and it is what has defined the rhythm of the session’s biggest fights.