Gerry Cohen says a state statute covers the constitution's pronoun problem.

As previously noted, the state constitution repeatedly refers to the governor as "he," but the longtime director of legislative bill drafting says a longstanding state law says that is meant to be inclusive.

G.S. 12-3 notes that "every word importing the masculine gender only shall ... be applied to females as well as to males, unless the context clearly shows to the contrary." It also notes that terms such as "governor" and "senator" "shall be a sufficient designation of the person holding such office or position, whether the holder be a man or woman."

The statute was in effect at the time the constitution was written and would have been applied to its provisions. In addition, Cohen said that the legislature did not begin adopting gender neutral language until the mid 1980s.

He said no interpretation of the constitution would see the pronoun as limiting the governor, although it sounds jarring to modern ears.

"I'm not troubled at all from a legal standpoint," he said. "As a grammarian or someone who's more conscious of gender issues, that's a different question."

Early voting got all the publicity, but same-day registration was also a success.

State legislators on the elections law committee said they were proud of the record number of voters who cast ballots at one-stop sites in the weeks leading up to the election, but they were more excited about the early registration numbers.

According to figures compiled by the State Board of Elections, 91,736 North Carolinians registered at early voting centers and another 95,903 reported address changes, under election law changes allowed by a 2007 law.

In the May primary, 20,320 registered to vote and another 28,750 changed addresses.

The changes helped reduce the number of provisional ballots. Under the old system, people who reported address changes during early voting still cast a provisional ballot, while under the new system the voter registration was immediately updated.

For comparison, Wake County alone had about 4,000 provisional ballots this year and about 10,915 in 2004, according to legislative analyst Gerry Cohen.

State Rep. Paul Luebke said he expects other states to model North Carolina's early voting system. The only change he would suggest for the next elections would be to standardize the hours, encouraging local boards of elections to stay open longer in early voting.

Correction: An earlier version of the post misstated. the figures in the May primary. 

DENVER — North Carolina's Democratic delegates moved through a morning buffet line this week, enjoying a free breakfast courtesy of AT&T. All, that is, except a handful of state legislators and staffers.

They paid $22 for the same plate of bacon, eggs and fruit.

"It gets to be absurd," says state Rep. Dan Blue of Raleigh. "I don't mind paying for breakfast, and I don't mind paying twice what the breakfast was worth. But you have to wonder why."

The reason is a "gift ban" included in a 2006 state ethics law that governs what legislators can accept from outside parties. It's similar to new federal restrictions on members of Congress. The laws offer a confusing thicket of regulations just as opportunities for gifts, free meals and entertainment abound at the national conventions. The nonprofit Sunlight Foundation has tracked more than 400 parties at both the Democratic and Republican conventions.

The Democrats finished their convention Thursday night in Denver with a speech by presidential nominee Barack Obama. The Republicans start their convention Monday in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Republican nominee John McCain is expected to announce his nominee for vice president today.

This week in Denver, Gerry Cohen, a legislative employee who is the top bill-drafter and is a member of the Democratic Party's platform committee, has also had to comply with the new state laws. He compares it with his experience as a student caught up in protests at the 1968 Chicago convention.

"Dealing with the tear gas was easier than trying to figure out the ethics laws," he says. (Char-O)

DENVER - State House Speaker Joe Hackney is catching the red-eye flight back to Raleigh after midnight tonight in time for Wednesday's special session of the legislature.

But Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, said he plans to return Wednesday night so he can catch Barack Obama's acceptance speech on Thursday, reports Rob Christensen.

Other Democratic lawmakers, such as Rep. Bill Faison of Orange County, were planning to return to Raleigh for the special session, which has been called to consider whether to override Gov. Mike Easley's veto of a bill relaxing the size of boats that can transported on state roads.

Meanwhile, Gerry Cohen, a top legislative staffer, made other accomodations. Cohen sat at a table at the North Carolina delegation breakfast Tuesday morning with his computer composing the legislature's adjournment resolution.

Expect state lawmakers to hang around until at least 12:01 a.m. Saturday, if Gov. Mike Easley hasn't decided what to do with the $21.4 billion state budget bill.

While the legislature's in session, Easley has 10 days to sign or veto the bill, or it becomes law. Those 10 days end at midnight Friday, said Gerry Cohen, the legislature's bill drafting director, Dan Kane reports.

But if the legislature closes the session before then, Easley has another 30 days to consider or reject the budget bill. If he vetoes, the legislature would have to be called back to vote to override the veto or produce another budget bill that's more to Easley's liking.

Legislative leaders say they would like to work out Easley's concerns. His staff say that he is seeking more money for his Learn and Earn education initiative that allows high school students to get a four-year college degree tuition free. They also say he has concerns about the record $857 million in borrowing authorized for construction projects.

Lawmakers do not have a lot of time to satisfy those concerns if they want to adjourn by the end of the week. Bills that spend more money typically need to be heard over three days.

If lawmakers can't finish their business this week, they are unlikely to wrap it up the next.

House Speaker Joe Hackney and 35 other House members, three senators and more than 25 legislative staffers are planning to attend the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual conference in New Orleans which runs Tuesday through Friday.

Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, is president elect of the organization, which provides research and technical assistance to state legislatures.

More than 85 percent of unaffiliated early voters asked for the Democratic ballot.

According to figures from the State Board of Elections analyzed by legislative guru Gerry Cohen, 85.1 percent of unaffiliated voters asked for a Democratic ballot; 13.5 percent, a Republican ballot; and 1.4 percent, a nonpartisan ballot.

In all, 71,624 unaffiliated voters cast ballots as of 6 a.m. this morning.

Earlier this month, Hampton Dellinger said he got into politics in the first grade.

In a video on his Web site, he credited a city council candidate who told all the kids he would build more bike paths so they would convince their parents to vote for him.

It wasn't clear exactly who the candidate was, but Dome inquired at the behest of Gerry Cohen, head of legislative bill drafting and blogger of things legislative.

Dellinger's response: It was Cohen himself.

We regret to inform you that we totally fell for that. 

Les Merritt is not the only state pol on LinkedIn.

In the last two weeks, the professional social networking site has started to take off among the crowd on Jones Street.

Aside from the state auditor, Rep. Grier Martin, Sen. Richard Stevens and candidate Ed Ridpath have signed up. Bill drafting director Gerry Cohen is leading the way among legislative staffers.

A number of members of the capitol press corps — including Mark Binker, Laura Leslie, and yours truly — are also on the site, but that's hardly surprising, given Dome's experience with journalists on social networking sites.

Since we last wrote, Merritt has also opened up his contacts.

In an interesting bipartisan moment, Stevens, a Republican, and Martin, a Democrat, are also "connections." That's not quite as heavy as being "friends" on Facebook, but it's a start.

The only question now is how long until Attorney General Roy Cooper demands to see proof that Martin, Stevens et al are over 18...

A bill to split the state's Electoral College votes could come back.

The legislation, which was pulled from the House floor and sent back to committee, could still be revived in the short session next year because it already passed the Senate.

Democrats will likely not favor passing the bill in the near future, since that could add fodder for California Republicans trying to pass a similar initiative to split the Golden State's electors along Congressional District lines.

But if the initiative makes it on the ballot and passes in that state's June 3 election, Democrats would likely look everywhere to make up an Ohio-sized loss of electors.

The legislature convenes May 13. Bill drafting director Gerry Cohen wagers the legislature would still be in session by mid-June — enough time to pre-clear the change with the U.S. Department of Justice.

"May, June or July would still be plenty of time before the presidential election," he said.

Republicans have tagged this the "do-nothing legislature."

In a press release late last night, Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger argued that Democratic majorities in the House and Senate "accomplished very little."

"Numerous news accounts have referred to this as the 'do-nothing' legislature because the session was short on significant legislative action," the release said.

From a strictly numerical basis, the legislature did a lot. According to bill drafting director Gerry Cohen on his blog, if the governor signs all the bills on his desk, it would be a 16 percent increase over the laws enacted in the last long session in 2005.

As we've noted before, Berger is likely talking more about the things the legislature didn't do. That includes bills that failed, such an anti-gay marriage amendment, and topics that went unaddressed, such as transportation funding.