A three-judge panel in a North Carolina court blocked a Republican scheme to gain power over the state’s election board — the agency charged with running elections and enforcing campaign finance laws.
Gov. Josh Stein (D) sued Republican legislative leaders over a power-grab law the GOP passed last year when they had a veto-proof supermajority. The measure removed the governor’s power to appoint members to the state board of elections, instead granting it to the state’s Republican auditor.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections has five board members — with a current makeup of three Democrats to two Republicans. The current system allows the party that holds the governor’s office to appoint all five state board members. But the GOP law would have required all members to be appointed by the state auditor. The law also transferred power to appoint the chairs of all 100 county election boards from the governor to the auditor.
In their 2-1 ruling, the panel of judges determined that SB 382 violated the state’s constitution.
“The Constitution prevents the legislature from unreasonably disturbing the vesting of ‘the executive power’ in the governor or the governor’s obligation to take care that the laws are faithfully executed,” Superior Court Judges Edwin Wilson and Lori Hamilton wrote for the majority opinion.
“[A] NC three judge panel just affirmed the Governor’s longstanding power to make appointments to the State Board of Elections, declaring the legislature’s power grab unconstitutional,” Stein said of the ruling on X. “The North Carolina Constitution puts the Governor in charge of executing the law. That’s what the voters elected me to do, so that’s what I’ll do.”
The decision comes days before SB 382 was set to go into effect, which would have given the state’s Republican auditor Dave Boliek power to appoint who he wants to the elections board. That could potentially have played a role in the ongoing legal saga over the still-uncertified state Supreme Court race.
Per the North Carolina appeals court’s latest order, the elections board is tasked with administering the curing process as part of Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin’s effort to overturn the results of last year’s election. Though a federal court Tuesday blocked the board from beginning the curing process as litigation plays out in federal court, the board was about to start sending out notices to some 1,500 people whose ballots are currently being challenged by Griffin.