U.S. District Judge William Osteen halted an effort Wednesday by the Democrat-headed North Carolina State Board of Elections to eliminate the requirement that voters have a witness sign their mail-in ballots.

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As Raleigh, North Carolina, NBC affiliate WRAL noted, Judge Osteen — a George W. Bush appointee — was concerned that the state board was going around the law:

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A witness must certify that a specific voter completed an absentee ballot. When the witness information is missing from the ballot envelope, local election officials usually try to contact the voter so he or she can cast a new ballot that meets the requirement. If the problem can’t be rectified, the ballot isn’t counted.

But the state board told county officials voters could simply sign an affidavit attesting that they had mailed the ballot, forgoing the witness requirement altogether.…

The judge said he wants to meet with state elections officials about his “concern that alleged compliance with this court’s order is resulting in elimination of a duly-enacted statute requiring a witness to an absentee ballot.”

In a separate legal challenge, Republicans — including President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign — are suing to block a consent decree negotiated between Democrats on the elections board and Democrats in activist organizations that sued the state. . . .

Two Republicans resigned from the elections board in protest at the consent decree. (Excerpt from Breitbart. Article by Joel B. Pollak. Photo Credit: Getty Images.)

Similar ruling on SC law:

The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a South Carolina election law Monday night that requires voters who mail in their absentee ballots to have someone witness their vote by signing their name on the back of the mail-in ballot envelope.

The high court issued a unanimous ruling after-hours Monday night, overturning a decision made last month by U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs of Columbia. Childs had prohibited the S.C. Election Commission from enforcing a state law that required a witness signature.

The two-page decision ends a weeks-long, on-again, off-again court battle from Childs’ court in Columbia to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond to the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington over whether South Carolina absentee voters would need someone to witness their signature on their mail-in ballot envelopes.

Childs wrote in her decision that she was persuaded by scientific evidence that the highly contagious COVID-19 posed a particular danger to elderly and medically vulnerable voters who, in many cases, would have to expose themselves to potential infection by seeking out a witness to get their signature.

In a small carve-out, or exception, to its otherwise unanimous ruling, a five-justice majority of the eight-person court ruled that “any ballots cast before this stay issues and received within two days of this order may not be rejected for failing to comply with the witness requirement,” the ruling said.

Up to 1 million South Carolina voters are expected to cast absentee ballots. Voters can still vote absentee in person at designated polling places. Anyone, including a spouse, friend or a child, can be a witness and sign the voter mail-in envelope.

In a short explanation of the Supreme Court’s reasoning, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that Childs’ decision overreached. He wrote that she should not have engaged in “second guessing” South Carolina’s state Legislature because unelected judges traditionally lack “the background, competence and expertise to assess public health” and are not accountable to the people. (Excerpt from The State.)

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