North Carolina Judge Delays Law Overhauling Elections Panel - The New York Times.txt

In a second courtroom setback in two days for Republican leaders in North Carolina, a judge on Friday temporarily blocked a state elections board overhaul that had been condemned as a partisan diminishing of executive power.The abolition of the existing State Board of Elections was to take effect on Sunday, less than three weeks after the Republican-controlled General Assembly approved a proposal to merge the panel with the State Ethics Commission and, ultimately, reduce the authority of Governor-elect Roy Cooper, a Democrat.“It certainly is not going to harm the state or the agency or any agency to delay that termination for 10 days so that we can have a hearing, a more complete hearing on the legal issues, the constitutional issues,” said Judge Donald W. Stephens of Wake County Superior Court, where Mr. Cooper filed a lawsuit on Friday.The judge, who announced his decision to grant a temporary restraining order at the end of a Friday afternoon hearing, is scheduled to hear more arguments about the disputed law on Thursday. But his ultimate role in the case, which Mr. Cooper’s lawyers say is rooted in the principle of separation of powers, will be limited: Under North Carolina law, three-judge panels hear and decide constitutional challenges to state statutes.“I’m not the last court to speak,” Judge Stephens said. “I’m just the first court to speak.”The law that Judge Stephens agreed to hold in abeyance amounts to a sweeping redesign of the panel that administers and regulates elections in a state that has been steeping  in political conflict.That panel had five members and was enmeshed in the controversy surrounding Mr. Cooper’s narrow victory over Gov. Pat McCrory. The legislation calls for the new version to include eight members, divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans. In addition to elections, the new panel, the Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement, would regulate official conduct and lobbying.Republicans argued that their proposal was about ensuring electoral fairness, but Democrats said it plainly smelled of a power grab. Before the measure became law, governors were allowed to appoint a simple majority in their party’s favor.Democrats have been vigorous in their complaints about Republican legislation curbing Mr. Cooper’s authority, and the measures that they approved during a hastily called special session will almost certainly be litigated for months.Some of the legislation has provoked frustrations within the state Republican Party. But given the political drama that has enveloped North Carolina in recent years — when debates over voting procedures, transgender rights and abortion access roiled Raleigh, the state capital — the restructuring of the elections board stirred perhaps the broadest outcry.Senator Phil Berger, the Republican who is the president pro tempore of the State Senate, sharply criticized Mr. Cooper on Friday.“Given the recent weekslong uncertainty surrounding his own election, the governor-elect should understand better than anyone why North Carolinians deserve a system they can trust will settle election outcomes fairly and without the taint of partisanship,” Mr. Berger said in a statement. “Roy Cooper’s effort to stop the creation of a bipartisan board with an equal number of Democrats and Republicans to enforce elections and ethics laws may serve his desire to preserve his own political power, but it does not serve the best interests of our state.”But Mr. Cooper accused Republicans of disguising their intentions.“A tie on a partisan vote would accomplish what many Republicans want: making it harder for North Carolinians to vote,” said Mr. Cooper, who plans to take office shortly after midnight Sunday.