RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – New North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed two Republican bills – one that tries again to shift authority away from Cooper to administer elections and a second that would prevent him from filling upcoming appeals court vacancies.
The vetoes were received Friday by the General Assembly, where overrides appear likely. Republicans hold veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate and have been fighting Cooper on several fronts even before he took office.
Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore issued a joint statement in response to today’s vetoes:
“North Carolinians deserve a bipartisan ethics and elections board with an equal number of Democrats and Republicans to govern without partisan motivations, but Roy Cooper wants to rig the system for his own benefit, just like when he packed the Court of Appeals with Democrats while serving in the legislature. We have complied with the court’s order and restored the governor’s ability to make all appointments to that board, yet he is still fighting measures to increase bipartisan cooperation and undo his court packing scheme for no other reason than to preserve his own partisan advantage.”
The elections bill creates a combined elections and ethics panel of eight members split between Democrats and Republicans. The governor’s party has previously held a majority of elections board seats.
Cooper issued the following statement on the veto of that bill, HB239:
“Having three fewer judges will increase the court’s workload and delay timely appeals. Just as bad is the real motivation of Republican legislators, which is to stack the court with judges of their own party. Earlier this session, Republican legislators already injected partisan politics into our courts by slapping political party labels on all judicial races.
A bipartisan group of former state Supreme Court chief justices said that this bill would “seriously harm our judicial system” and “hurt the people of our state.” In addition, I believe this legislation is unconstitutional, and we should all be concerned about unwarranted attacks on the judiciary.”
The other vetoed bill, HB68, reduces the state Court of Appeals from 15 judges to 12. Three seats would be eliminated as judges retire or resign.
Governor Cooper commented on his decision to veto House Bill 68, saying:
“This is the same unconstitutional legislation in another package, and it’s an attempt to make it harder for people to register and vote. Changing the State Board of Elections to a 4-4 partisan split and local county board of elections to a 2-2 partisan split will result in deadlocked votes. It’s a scheme to ensure that Republicans control state and county boards of elections in Presidential election years when the most races are on the ballot.
The North Carolina Republican Party has a track record of trying to influence Board of Elections members to make it harder for people to vote and have fair elections. Under this bill, that same party controls the pool of appointments of half the state and county elections boards.
I urge legislators to set the right priorities for North Carolina and stop electoral manipulation, which, like gerrymandering, is what’s wrong with politics.”
