(The Center Square) – State Board of Elections members are to remain the appointments of the governor of North Carolina and not shift to the state auditor on May 1, a three-judge panel in Wake County Superior Court said Wednesday.

The ruling impacts a portion of the third disaster relief bill from the General Assembly, though not the $252 million designated for western North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene. The 132-page proposal was heavily scrutinized because only the first 13 pages were related to Helene, and the remainder on changes to authority of elected positions.

Josh Stein was attorney general at the time and governor-elect, and Roy Cooper was in the final weeks of his second four-year term as governor. Both are Democrats. State Auditor Dave Boliek is a Republican.

The five-member state board and five-member county boards of elections are typically three members of the party of the governor, and two members of the state’s other major party.

Neither is the largest voting bloc. The state’s more than 7.4 million registered voters have more signing up as unaffiliated (37.6%) than any of the eight permitted parties.

In making the ruling, the court order said state and county boards “exercise executive functions” and paired that with a state Supreme Court ruling on Article III of the state constitution. It says the governor has “control over” the commissions and boards that are “executive in character.”

Critics say the state and county boards side with respective parties, creating many 3-2 votes. The Legislature, in addition to this attempted change, tried also to reduce the size of the state and county boards and change the appointments through a legislative act.

That, too, failed.

On social media, Stein wrote, “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.”

Cooper issued a veto of the legislation and each chamber of the General Assembly was successful on an override vote.

The duties of the State Board of Elections are not in the constitution. The auditor’s duties are as “prescribed by law.”

Stein, who advocated for cooperation with the Legislature upon taking his oath on Jan. 1 and in his State of the State address, has additional litigation against lawmakers pending Disaster Relief-3/Budget/Various Law Changes, known also as Senate Bill 382.

(The Center Square) – A federal judge, said the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday night, is next up to consider a North Carolina Supreme Court decision in the nation’s last unresolved race from the Nov. 5 elections.

Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs and Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin are battling for Seat 6 on the state Supreme Court bench. Following the stay granted by the federal appellate court, Chief Judge Richard Myers of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina is to consider the process endorsed by the state high court.

Riggs, the North Carolina Democratic Party, the State Board of Elections, and multiple activist groups will try to convince Myers to not allow the state Supreme Court choice of a curing process for overseas voters’ ballots. A recalculation of the totals would follow.

Published reports say the number of ballots ranges between 1,500 and 6,000.

On Election Night, with 2,658 precincts reporting, Griffin led Riggs by 9,851 votes of 5,540,090 cast. Provisional and absentee ballots that qualified were added to the totals since, swinging the race by 10,585 votes.

Riggs has been poised for a 734-vote win. Griffin protested about 65,000 ballots on multiple counts, and the state board rejected all of them. Most were by 3-2 party-line votes.

The protests the state board denied included registration records of voters, such as lack of providing either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. State law for that has been in place two decades, dating to 2004.

Other ballots protested and denied by the state board included voters overseas who have never lived in the United States, and for lack of photo identification provided with military and overseas voters. The latter is at issue for Myers.

The Supreme Court bench has historically been both nonpartisan and partisan, and since going back to the latter, was 6-1 Democrats in 2019. It is 5-2 Republicans today.

Riggs has been recused from all actions involving the state Supreme Court. She remains seated until the election is resolved. Griffin is a judge on the state Court of Appeals and has been recused from all actions there as well.