RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Judges are hearing whether North Carolina’s Republican lawmakers are acting constitutionally as they again seek to neuter the new Democratic governor’s oversight of state and local elections.
Lawyers for Gov. Roy Cooper and legislative leaders are due back in court Friday.
A panel of three state trial judges will review a new law that takes away Cooper’s authority to appoint the majority of members of the statewide elections board and those in all 100 counties. Governors have picked election board majorities for more than a century.
GOP legislators now want to divide elections boards equally between Democrats and Republicans.
The judicial panel struck down an earlier version of the law. Legislative leaders say this version meets judicial guidelines by letting Cooper pick from lists provided by the two major parties.
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