First and foremost, we did not take the vote while Democrats were attending a 9/11 memorial service. That was falsely reported by a Raleigh newspaper and picked up by all national media before it could be corrected. Gov. Roy Cooper has since confirmed that he witnessed no N.C. legislators at the service in question.

Additionally, reporter and columnist Colin Campbell reported that only one legislator was absent due to attending a service in their district. Reports of legislators being at services commemorating the 18th anniversary of September 11 were totally false.

Secondly, Speaker Tim Moore’s office has published an excellent piece giving the overall facts and dispels all the rumors of things that just didn’t happen. If you are interested in what happened, this will be a nice 10-minute read that will give you all the facts. I stand by everything said here. All the post discussion is Monday morning quarterbacking when all info and opinions are in.

Here is my real time reality of how the vote occurred on that Wednesday. I walked into the chamber at 8:30 a.m. sharp. We had no information that the veto override motion was going to be made. I am Deputy Majority Whip and I would have been one of the first notified. I was not. Remember, we are in real time now. After the opening prayer and pledge Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincolnton, made the motion to override the budget.

The Speaker asked the clerk to “open the vote.” As with all votes, we are given 15 seconds to vote “yes” or “no.” Simple as that. I voted yes because I know the budget is great for my district. The truth is I had two months to make that decision. I was going to vote yes for the veto override whenever it came up. We did not vote on procedures, did not have time to think about who was on the floor and who was not, did not know Democrats thought there were no votes, we had 15 seconds to vote yes or no. I voted yes as I have planned since the veto came down to us.

I’m not crazy about the controversy or that the Democrats mistakenly thought there were no votes. The Speaker is the only one that can call for the vote. The announcement was made twice the night before that we would have votes. That is in the record and not debatable. The Democrats not being there was because their Minority Leader told them that there would “no votes.” He based that on a private conversation with the rules chair about whether two bills that were added to the calendar would be held from the 8:30 a.m. voting session so Dems could caucus before. The Rules Chair said he agreed and the votes on those two bills would not be held at 8:30 a.m. I suppose he took it that there would be no votes. Again, we knew none of this. All we knew was the override was on the floor with a motion made.

Finally, we could vote yes or no. A no for me would’ve been a vote against my district, my schools, state employee raises in my district including teachers and law enforcement and state retirees. I voted yes on the budget, not on the procedure. I didn’t have that choice, nor did I know it was coming. I will always vote for my district first and party or procedure last.

Kevin Corbin

NC House of Representatives 

Candidate for N.C. Senate