We’re already seeing the cost of Republicans taking control of NC elections | Opinion
When the General Assembly stole the Governor’s constitutional authority to administer our elections and handed it over to the State Auditor, we were told not to worry; that it would make our elections safer and more efficient. We see now how much of a lie that was.
At the end of January, every campaign in North Carolina turned in their fundraising reports to the State Board of Elections, a routine step that usually ends up posted to the Board’s website within 48 hours. This time, instead of taking two days, it took nearly two weeks for the Board to upload all reports, a critical part of ensuring transparency and trust in our elections.
Who would have guessed that forcing out career civil servants to replace them with partisan operatives and wholesale purges of local elections boards would create problems? Are our new elections overlords acting with malice, or just gross mismanagement? Either way, it’s reason to demand answers and accountability from the Auditor and his Republican masters in the legislature.
Patrick Bradley, Chapel Hill
Where’s the money?
Our administration has and is spending millions upon millions on renaming and redecorating venues. It has spent countless millions moving our military all around the world for a “show of force,” and it has flooded our cities with ICE agents with little accomplished. If it suits the president, there is no limit on spending. But the release of FEMA funds already approved to help our citizens harmed by multiple natural disasters continues to be delayed.
For an administration supposedly committed to the elimination of waste, fraud and abuse, this seems to be a contradiction. The delay of approved funds is just unconscionable!
Doug Johnson, Durham
A human cost of killing USAID
One year ago, the Trump administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development. According to leading estimates, that decision has already cost roughly 600,000 lives. Thanks to the work of journalists, we know some of their names.
One of them was Suza Kenyaba. Suza was five years old and lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the only photograph we have of her, she is wearing a “Happy Halloween” shirt. When she contracted malaria, the medicine that could have saved her life was just seven miles away. The U.S. government had already purchased it and shipped it to a nearby warehouse. But because of the aid freeze, it never reached the clinic where Suza lay dying. She died on Feb. 19, 2025.
For less than one percent of the federal budget, USAID provided food, medicine, and education to some of the world’s poorest people. It kept children alive. Now, as that lifeline disappears, China is rapidly increasing its foreign aid and pressuring countries to align with Beijing instead of Washington. Representative Deborah Ross and Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd should act now to restore U.S. foreign aid.
Elisabeth Convery, Apex
Astounding ICE statistic
Andrew Dunn cites an astounding stat in his Feb 15 column. With all the administration’s bluster about deporting criminal aliens, how is it possible that nationwide ICE only picks up 14% of those already in the custody of local law enforcement and flagged by ICE detainers?
Hugh Mensch, Southern Pines
Enough with the “F word”
I taught high school for 40 years before retiring. One of my classroom rules was “no swearing.” Students argued with me when I said that “damn” and “s---” were swearing. As the years went by, many other words were challenged, including the “F word.”
Today I’m feeling like I’ve lost a battle. TV newscasters, congressmen, state and local politicians, and even the President of the United States use the “F word” without even the slightest embarrassment. It makes me sad. I am happy, though, that the N&O and my family still follow my rule.
Patrick Nalley, Durham
This story was originally published February 22, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "We’re already seeing the cost of Republicans taking control of NC elections | Opinion."