RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s Republican Party-controlled Legislature unlawfully tried to strip the governor’s power to choose election board members in the battleground state, judges ruled, saying parts of a new election law should be permanently blocked.
The three-judge panel unanimously sided with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in his lawsuit, which was filed just days after the Republican Party-controlled General Assembly overrode Cooper’s veto of the measure in October. The changes, which would take effect in January, would have shifted the board’s appointment powers from the governor to the Legislature.
In late November, the panel temporarily blocked the new structures for the State Board of Elections and boards in all 100 counties from taking effect while Cooper’s lawsuit was heard.
The justices agreed with Cooper’s attorneys, who said that, based on recent court rulings and the state Constitution, the new appointment process interferes with a governor’s ability to ensure that elections and voting laws are “faithfully administered.”
It is clear that the law is “contrary to the Governor’s constitutional duties” and that actions by Republican Party legislative leaders are “the most egregious and egregious removal of the Governor’s appointment power” since Supreme Court rulings of the state in 2016 and 2018 in which the president of the state was favored. ,” Superior Court Judges Edwin Wilson, Andrew Womble and Lori Hamilton wrote in the order filed Monday. Hamilton and Womble are both registered Republicans, while Wilson is a Democrat.
The decision means that these boards will continue to fall under the design of the previous law, unless it is annulled on appeal. Republicans have been encouraged by winning recent high-stakes rulings at the state Supreme Court since it changed from a 4-3 Democratic majority to a 5-2 Republican majority in early 2023.
The Associated Press sent emails to the offices of Cooper and Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger on Tuesday seeking comment. House Speaker Tim Moore’s office had no comment, a spokesman said.
Cooper, who will no longer be allowed to run for office this year, has called the changes a power grab for the Republican Party that comes a year before the presidential election. Statements by these boards on where polling places are located, which ballots are counted and whether challenges to the results are accepted could influence a close race for governor, Congress and the Legislature.
For years, Republicans in the General Assembly have pushed unsuccessfully to change the makeup of the state legislature, which they say would promote bipartisan consensus in elections and voting decisions. They have been stymied by both court rulings and a constitutional amendment that voters rejected in 2018.
The ruling, dated last Friday, also further stalled a key element of the changes they approved in 2023 that they say will boost voter confidence in the elections. They were among the most comprehensive state reforms passed last year and continued a trend among Republican state lawmakers, many of whom have passed laws since 2021 adding new voting restrictions. These laws came after former President Donald Trump began falsely claiming that widespread fraud cost him his re-election in 2020.
The state elections board consists of five members appointed by the governor – a format that dates back more than 100 years – based on lists of candidates from the major parties. The governor’s party has three seats.
The contested Republican proposal would have expanded the board to eight members, appointed by the General Assembly based on recommendations from key legislative leaders of both parties — likely leading to a four-to-four split among Democrats and Republicans. Four-member district boards would also be elected based on the choices of legislative leaders. Currently, the district boards consist of five members, with the state administrators appointing four positions and Cooper appointing one.
Cooper and his Democratic allies have argued that these formats will lead to deadlocks, which could mean fewer places for in-person voting and more contested election results decided by the General Assembly.
Should the changes to the administration be approved by the courts in the coming months, new appointments could be made as election campaigns heat up and voting approaches.
Other new election changes that applied to voters in this week’s primary included mail-in ballots received after Tuesday not being counted, eliminating the previous three-day grace period for ballots received on Election Day were stamped, was eliminated. And many voters were required to show photo ID to vote for the first time, the result of a 2018 law whose implementation had been delayed by lawsuits.
The lawsuit against the Board of Elections is one of several Cooper has filed over the past seven years against General Assembly laws that he says unlawfully weaken his position. Last week, a separate three-judge panel agreed to block legislative appointment changes to two boards and commissions but allowed changes to proceed in five others. Republican lawmakers plan to appeal the ruling.