North Carolina governor vetoes masks bill largely due to provision about campaign finance

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Despite changes made to North Carolina’s masking bill to quell concerns over the removal of a pandemic-era health exemption, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said he vetoed the legislation on Friday mostly for a different reason: a campaign finance provision tacked on to the end during legislative negotiations.

The bill now heads back to the state legislature. Republicans hold narrow veto-proof majorities at the General Assembly, which overrode all 19 of Cooper’s vetoes last year.

It’s Cooper’s third veto of the year, and GOP lawmakers have yet to take up override votes on his previous two this session — although they may come soon.

The original bill version that passed through the state Senate prompted significant criticism over its removal of an exemption to public masking laws passed in 2020 that allowed people to wear a mask for health purposes. The exemption’s removal would have technically made masking for health reasons illegal in the state.

While the strikethrough of one line caught most people’s attention, the majority of the bill focuses on increasing penalties for people who wear masks while committing a crime or intentionally block roadways in demonstrations. Republican legislators advanced the legislation this session in part as a response to the use of masks during widespread campus protests over the war in Gaza, including demonstrations on the Chapel Hill campus of the University of North Carolina.

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