Ignoring the courts and the people, NC Republicans seize control of the State Board of Elections | Opinion
The courts repeatedly told them no.
The voters of North Carolina told them no.
Yet this week state Republican lawmakers did it anyway – they took control of the State Board of Elections.
The coup started Wednesday with a secretive ruling by a panel of three state Court of Appeals judges. The judges unanimously agreed to stay a trial court ruling concerning appointments to the State Board of Elections.
The trial court had found that a provision of a new state law, Senate Bill 382, illegally transfers control of the board from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein to Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek. By transferring the power within the executive branch, rather than switching it to the legislature as in earlier proposals, GOP lawmakers hope to overcome constitutional objections to their usurping of the governor’s powers.
In staying the lower court ruling, the Appeals Court judges allowed a law found to be unconstitutional to take effect pending the outcome of appeals. The Appeals Court panel did not hear arguments in the case or explain their reasoning. Their names will remain sealed for 90 days.
While the ruling was cloaked, the impact was clear. Boliek moved on Thursday – the new law’s effective date – to appoint three Republicans to the five-member State Board of Elections. He also will select two Democratic members from a list provided by the state Democratic Party. Previously, the board’s majority was appointed by the governor, with two members selected from the opposing party. The governor also controlled the majority on county election boards, a power also transferred to the auditor under the new law.
Boliek’s three Republican appointments are Francis De Luca, former president of the Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank; Stacy Clyde Eggers IV of Boone, a current member of the board, and Bob Rucho of Catawba County, a former Republican state senator.
The Rucho appointment crystallizes how deeply partisan the Republican power grab is. As a senator, Rucho oversaw the drawing of congressional districts for the 2016 election that were aimed at giving Republican candidates an overwhelming advantage in most districts. A lawsuit challenging the maps — Rucho v. Common Cause — made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices ruled 5-4 that partisan gerrymandering complaints should be decided by state courts.
The board’s new Republican majority could cause all sorts of mischief. Stein suspects their first move will be to assist Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin in his attempt to reverse his defeat in the 2024 state Supreme Court election.
“Today’s Court of Appeals decision about the Board of Elections poses a threat to our democracy and the rule of law,” Stein said in a post on X. He added that the intervention by the Court of Appeals to let the new law take effect despite legal challenges to it appears to be “the latest step in the partisan effort to steal a seat on the Supreme Court.”
Beyond election concerns, the move by the Republican-controlled legislature to transfer a power that the governor has held for more than a century raises broader issues about how North Carolina is governed.
Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College, asked, “Could the legislature effectively strip a wide swath of executive functions from a governor and transfer them to any other executive officer? And with the power of partisanship so intense in this state, could the governor be administratively neutered?”
Stein has appealed to the state Supreme Court, but pending a decision, Boliek is in charge. No other state gives power over the enforcement of election laws to its state auditor. In some states, the secretary of state oversees elections, but that option wasn’t taken in the new law because that post is held in North Carolina by a Democrat, Elaine Marshall.
Republican state lawmakers have been trying to gain control of the state Board of Elections for years. Courts have repeatedly found that the state constitution assigns power over the execution of election laws to the governor. A proposed state constitutional amendment to give the Republican-controlled legislature control of the elections board failed in 2018 by a vote of 61% to 38%.
In their pursuit of absolute control, Republicans are not taking no for an answer, even when it comes from the courts and from the voters.
This story was originally published May 2, 2025 at 10:34 AM with the headline "Ignoring the courts and the people, NC Republicans seize control of the State Board of Elections | Opinion."