Happy Friday, everyone. Bryan Anderson rejoins us next week, so you have that to look forward to. Also, you know, the weekend. Let’s do it.
— Jeffrey Billman
🧑⚖️ Roll Call
- Appeals court blocks ballot curing
- Stein’s separation of powers victory
- A dispatch from the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party
- Around the Hill: Lumbee recognition, Hudson’s town hall
Dems’ Court Wins, Part 1
North Carolina Democrats won two big, though perhaps temporary, victories in court this week. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the N.C. State Board of Elections from beginning “ballot-curing” procedures in the ongoing dispute over the 2024 state Supreme Court election. A day later, a three-judge panel of Wake County Superior Court judges ruled that a law giving elections oversight to the state auditor, rather than the governor, was unconstitutional. We’ll discuss that one later.
First, let’s catch up on the Supreme Court race: Jefferson Griffin, a Republican, trails incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs by 734 votes. But the state Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that several hundred so-called “never residents” and potentially thousands of military and overseas voters could have their ballots discarded, though the latter group would get 30 days to submit an ID and validate their vote.
Riggs appealed in federal court, and District Judge Richard Myers II promised to rule quickly. In the meantime, he barred the elections board from certifying the race but told the board to begin asking overseas voters to submit IDs.
Riggs asked the Fourth Circuit to intervene, warning that ballot curing could undermine “the legitimacy of [Riggs’] election victory” and cause “chaos” if the court ultimately rejected Griffin’s challenges.
The Fourth Circuit agreed. In a 2-1 decision, Judges Paul Niemeyer and Toby Heytens (nominees of former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Joe Biden, respectively) forbade the elections board from acting until the case is resolved. Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., a Trump appointee, dissented, saying it wasn’t appropriate for the appeals court to weigh in.
What does all of this mean? Most directly, a resolution is still months away. Indirectly, the ruling suggests Griffin will find a skeptical audience in the liberal-leaning Fourth Circuit. Of course, if he lost there, he could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
— Jeffrey Billman
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Dems’ Court Wins, Part 2
Republicans hold 12 of 15 state Court of Appeals seats, in addition to (at least) five of seven state Supreme Court seats. That means Gov. Josh Stein’s win in Wake County Superior Court on Wednesday might be short-lived.
But the decision was at least a temporary setback in Republican lawmakers’ long-running effort to strip the (Democratic) governor of control of state elections, which they first tried to do in 2016. Last year, they put the elections board under the purview of Auditor Dave Boliek, making him the only state auditor in the country with that role.
Stein sued, arguing that this legislative innovation was unconstitutional. By a 2-1 margin, the Superior Court panel—comprising two Republicans and one Democrat—agreed. The panel found that the law violates the state constitution’s separation of powers clause.
The judges said their decision was guided by two recent precedents. In 2016, the state Supreme Court ruled that legislative encroachment into executive appointments was impermissible. Then, in 2018, the state Supreme Court said a previous legislative attempt to wrest elections oversight from the governor interfered with the state constitution’s requirement that he “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
The legislature’s attempt to circumvent the second decision, by handing elections elsewhere in the executive branch—really, to the Council of State’s most plausible Republican—didn’t cut it, the panel said Wednesday. In addition, the General Assembly can’t assign seemingly disconnected jobs to Council of State members.
“The General Assembly’s power to prescribe duties to the Council of State is constrained by the people’s understanding of the purpose of those offices when they were created,” Judges Edwin Wilson and Lori Hamilton wrote.
In dissent, Judge Andrew Womble, a Republican, said that so long as the General Assembly keeps elections within the executive branch, the law doesn’t violate the separation of powers.
Republicans will appeal. Given the Court of Appeals’ conservative tendencies, they stand a good chance. And Republicans on the state Supreme Court have not shied from overturning precedents they dislike, either. Paul Newby, now the chief justice, dissented in the 2018 case, arguing that the General Assembly had every right to take control of elections.
— Jeffrey Billman
Mecklenburg Blues
Most elections for county political party chair only matter to the most committed activists. Few make the news. But then, most county party chairs didn’t get glowing profiles in Politico and The New York Times.
Drew Kromer did.
When he was elected chair of the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party in April 2023, Kromer was a 26-year-old politics nerd with ambition. In November that year, after all of the party’s endorsed candidates swept mayoral and town commissioner elections in Huntersville, many started to think he was the answer to Mecklenburg Democrats’ long-running turnout problem.
But in 2024, Mecklenburg once again seemed to underperform: Turnout in November trailed the state average. Three months into Donald Trump’s second term, Kromer isn’t projecting power. He’s pleading for patience.
To get more time, Kromer will have to convince Mecklenburg Democrats to give him another term as chair during the party’s convention this weekend. He’s up against Wesley Harris, last year’s Democratic candidate for state treasurer. And Kromer has been dogged by criticism from Black Democrats who believe the November outcome had more to do with underinvestment in their communities than a crunched timeline.
— Matt Hartman
Around the Hill
Here’s the latest from our partners:
Press 1 for Jobs: In March, NRCC Chair Richard Hudson told Republicans to stop holding in-person town halls as many became forums for disgruntled voters to voice their concerns. However, he held a tele-town hall earlier this week, fielding questions from constituents about DOGE and deportations amid tech issues. Read the full story.
Road to Recovery: Helene recovery funding is uncertain as N.C. lawmakers try and fail to work with the federal government for more money. Democrats and Republicans have both been stymied by bureaucracy and the Trump administration’s management of FEMA, our NOTUS partners write. Read the full story.
Send Me a Memo: The Lumbee Tribe have been fighting for full federal recognition for decades, and they’ve found a champion in President Trump. Early in his second term, Trump signed an order requiring the Department of the Interior to create a report on paths for recognition for the Lumbee. The deadline for that order is this week. Read the full story.
Let us know what’s on your radar at politics@theassemblync.com.