NC lawmakers to vote on delaying 2022 primaries again due to legal challenges
North Carolina Senate Republicans plan on Wednesday to vote to postpone the state’s primary elections to June 7, citing ongoing litigation of the newly enacted redistricting maps.
The state Supreme Court scheduled arguments in the redistricting case for Feb. 2. The court in December pushed back the primary from its original March 8 date to May 17, as part of an expedited hearing schedule for challenges to the redrawn maps.
But Sen. Ralph Hise, a top Republican, said Monday that the current schedule “is an extremely short time frame that will cause unnecessary confusion and chaos.”
In court filings, the State Board of Elections said it would need final information on the new districts no later than Feb. 14 to 18, to accommodate a May 17 primary. If the initial primary date were moved back, it could impact the ability to hold runoff elections before the November general election.
Republican lawmakers want to make sure they have time to redraw maps for the state Senate, state House and U.S. House if the N.C. Supreme Court — which has a 4-3 Democratic majority — orders them to be redrawn.
While the court can ask the legislature to redraw maps if the current ones are overturned, that’s not the only option. The court could also accept the replacement maps proposed by challengers in the case, or could hire an outside expert to do the work.
“The Constitution of this state is very clear: It is the responsibility, it is the duty of the North Carolina General Assembly to redraw the districts in this state — not the court, not the governor, not anybody else,” House Speaker Tim Moore said last week.
The House has scheduled a voting session for Wednesday afternoon.
What Cooper and Democrats say
Republicans passed the maps late last year without a single Democratic vote. The maps are expected to give the GOP a 10-4 or 11-3 majority in U.S. House seats and strong majorities in the state legislature. The maps are not subject to veto by the governor.
A bill changing the primary schedule would go to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk for his signature.
Democrats throughout the state criticized the move Tuesday, suggesting that Republicans’ efforts to move the primary seem intended to pressure the Supreme Court into letting the legislature redraw the maps, if the maps are overturned, rather than the court hiring an outside expert to do it.
“The three-judge panel during the trial has already found as fact that the maps drawn by Republicans are intentional, partisan gerrymanders,” Cooper spokesperson Jordan Monaghan said in an emailed statement. “The Supreme Court will determine the constitutionality of these districts and legislators should avoid additional attempts to undermine the voting process.”
The statement did not say whether Cooper intends to veto the bill.
After Cooper issued a statement, Senate Democratic leader Dan Blue and House Democratic leader Robert Reives followed suit in criticizing the move — an indication that many Democrats are unlikely to support the legislation.
“A three judge panel has found the Republicans intentionally gerrymandered districts to deny voters an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. The NC Supreme Court now has the case,” Reives said. “We should wait for their decision and, if it is necessary to move the primary, the court can do so.”
U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat and former N.C. Supreme Court justice, said the idea is “an unwarranted intrusion into the judicial process” by GOP lawmakers.
“The legislature needs to stand down for a second and let the judicial system work,” he said.
Butterfield is not running for reelection in 2022, so his district is one of several that could feature crowded, highly competitive primaries.
Eliminating the possibility of a runoff, he said, might also affect some of those races.
“By delaying until June it would eliminate the chance of a runoff,” he said. “Now, that might be politically advantageous — or disadvantageous — to some people. But that’s not the issue for right now.”
Wiley Nickel, a Democratic state senator from Cary who is running for Congress in a different district — which also seems likely to feature a highly crowded primary — was even more blunt.
“Republican legislators had their chance and offered yet another extreme partisan gerrymander,” he said in a press release. “We can’t trust Republican legislators to redraw maps in an honest and transparent process.”
A look at legal challenges
Plaintiffs in the cases argue that the districts represent an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. A three-judge panel found the maps were drawn to intentionally give Republicans an advantage, but found nothing in the state constitution outlawing partisan districts.
“Redistricting and the political considerations that are part of that process do not impinge on the right to vote,” wrote the judges, two Republicans and one Democrat, in a unanimous order. “Nothing about redistricting affects a person’s right to cast a vote.”
The delay would apply to all elections — including the contested U.S. Senate race, even though it does not rely on districts in the redrawn maps.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at link.chtbl.com/underthedomenc or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published January 17, 2022 at 4:13 PM with the headline "NC lawmakers to vote on delaying 2022 primaries again due to legal challenges."
