Gov. Beverly Perdue signed another seven bills Friday, including four that make changes to the state's election process or administration.

HB 1111: Clarifies when a candidate becomes covered by the state's campaign finance laws and places some limitations on the types of donations a candidate can receive for a legal expense fund. So that probably won't be relevant to anyone in state government any time soon.

HB 908: Allows teenagers to register to vote early. Their voter registration becomes active automatically when they turn 18.

HB 907: Tweaks the law regarding publicly funded campaigns. The law limits emergency money that is meant to help a candidate respond to another campaign in that emergency money won't be paid in response to a campaign ad that mentions all candidates. That change would have prevented a case where the state had to provide judicial candidates money when they were both mentioned favorably in a Democratic mailer.

SB 253: Makes it easier for military personnel to vote absentee.

N.C. Court of Appeals candidate Kristin Ruth said today that she has returned roughly $13,000 in public money given to her campaign through a quirk in the state's election laws.

"This was an unintended consequence of North Carolina's excellent system of public financing that led to an unnecessary expenditure of public money," Ruth said in a news release.

Ruth, a Wake County District Court judge, called on her opponent in the election, Sam Ervin IV to also return an equal sum given to him, Dan Kane reports. Ervin, a Morganton lawyer and utilities commissioner, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Both candidates are Democrats vying for one of five contested appeals court seats. The races are supposed to be nonpartisan and nearly all of the candidates have opted for public financing. Judges are supposed to be impartial, so the nonpartisan, publicly funded campaigns are intended to take the focus away from politics and remove the possibility of judges being beholden to campaign donors.

But last week, the N.C. Democratic Party decided to jump into the races by spending roughly $13,000 on the Democratic candidates for the appeals court and the N.C. Supreme Court. The money went towards a widely distributed mailer and advertising in newspapers that predominately serve African-American readers.

Such outside expenditures trigger what are known as public "rescue" funds to the opponents to prevent an unfair advantage. But since Ruth and Ervin oppose each other, they received the rescue funds, even though equally benefited from the party's spending.

That means the public would have been spending $26,000 unnecessarily. Ruth's decision cuts that amount by half.

"In keeping with my years of working to save money within the court system, I am returning these funds to the taxpayers," she said.

Update: Ervin later today said he too would not accept the rescue funds.

He added that he is also turning down another $3,000 in rescue funds that election officials had told him were on the way.

He was unsure what triggered those funds.

"I received a call from a reporter today saying that my opponent has apparently decided to return the rescue funds that our campaigns received last week," Ervin said. "I intend to do the same. Also, my campaign was notified this afternoon that the state is dispersing another check to my campaign for about $3,000 in additional rescue funds. I have instructed my campaign to return the check as soon as we receive it." 

The recent payment of roughly $13,000 each in public "rescue funds" to six state appellate court judicial candidates exposed a quirk in the public financing laws.

Spending by the N.C. Democratic Party for mailers and newspaper ads triggered the spending. The races are nonpartisan and nearly all the candidates have opted for public financing. That means outside spending triggers the rescue funds to prevent a competitive disadvantage, Dan Kane reports.

The quirk is that two of the judicial candidates who received the rescue funds — Kristin Ruth and Sam Ervin IV — benefited from the Democratic Party's spending. But since they face each other for an N.C. Court of Appeals seat, state law requires they each receive the rescue funds to make up for the party's spending on the opponent.

That means roughly $26,000 in public money is being spent to aid two candidates who had received the same benefit from the Democratic Party.

State election officials said they were only following the law in providing the funds, but they said lawmakers ought to give the provision a second look.

Rep. Deborah Ross, a Raleigh Democrat and vice chairwoman of the House Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform Committee, agreed.

"I think that the rescue provision was not written with the intent to provide additional money to candidates who are facing each other and who have both benefited by the positive, identical message paid for by the same third party," she said.

Supreme Court Justice Bob Edmunds is receiving rescue funds from the state.

Under the state's public campaign finance program for judges, candidates can receive extra money if they are facing an independent expenditure.

Campaign Manager Andrew Brown said he received an e-mail at 2:45 p.m. from the State Board of Elections notifying him that Edmunds would receive $12,883 in rescue funds.

He said a staffer with the board of elections told him several other campaigns were also receiving money, but he did not know who was behind the independent expenditure.

North Carolina judicial races are nonpartisan, but the state Democratic and Republican parties often include their preferred candidates in mailers and other advertising.

Edmunds, a Republican, faces Democrat Suzanne Reynolds. He is the only Supreme Court justice up for re-election this year.

Update: According to the board of elections, the state Democratic Party has spent $12,883 on advertisements for Reynolds and Court of Appeals candiadtes Mark Martin, Jim Wynn, Sam Ervin, Kristin Ruth, Linda Stephens, Cheri Beasley and John Arrowood in black newspapers around the state. That spending triggered the rescue funds for Edmunds and other candidates.