Governor Cooper’s Veto Means Redistricting Will Be Decided By NC Supreme Court
Protesters attend a rally for “Fair Maps” in 2019 in Washington, DC. Source: NPR
On January 28th, Governor Roy Cooper vetoed HB 605 — one of the latest attempts to stall midterm primary elections in North Carolina. The proposed bill would have pushed the primary elections back to June, nearly four months away from the traditional March date.
Currently, the primaries are scheduled for May 17th, a result of the disagreement in the North Carolina General Assembly over the new district maps. After retaining their majority in the 2020 election cycle, Republicans became responsible for drawing the new maps after the current iterations were deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. But according to NCGA Democrats and Governor Cooper, the newly drawn districts appear to be veiled attempts at further gerrymandering. Without finalized maps, the NC Board of Elections are forced to delay primary elections.
Governor Cooper’s latest block to Republican lawmakers is part of the larger debate regarding which actors should be responsible for settling the map debate. According to the veto’s accompanying statement, Governor Cooper stands firm in the belief that the deciding party should be the NC Supreme Court, and any bill that says otherwise is an “additional attempt by Republican legislators to control the election timeline and undermine the voting process.” In response, Republican lawmakers are criticizing Governor Cooper for using redistricting litigation as a “pure political power play.” In the polarized general assembly, Governor Cooper has made frequent use of his veto power. As of the end of 2021, there had only been 100 governor vetoes in NC history — with Governor Cooper handing down sixty-five of them.
Despite Republican complaints, the most likely outcome for the state’s new maps will play out in the NC Supreme Court, which has a one-justice Democrat majority. As this possibility becomes more probable, the national spotlight has turned towards the court. So far, multiple justices have been asked to recuse themselves from the redistricting case because of conflicts of interest. Republicans justified their calls for Justice Jimmy Ervin’s recusal by pointing out his impending bid for re-election in 2022. However, such a recusal would evenly split the justices — leaving three registered Republicans and three registered Democrats on the bench. Critics are calling this an attempt to give Republican defendants an advantage. But, Republicans are not the only ones to call for recusals. Democratic lawmakers were joined by lawyers from Common Cause in requesting that Republican Justice Phil Berger Jr. recuse himself from the case due to a family relationship with one of the named defendants. State Senator Phil Berger Sr., is the justice’s father and the current president of the NC State Senate.
Though debate continues to rage in Raleigh, one group has already lost in the fight for more fair elections: North Carolina’s students. With the May 17th election date, most universities will have finished up their academic calendar, therefore most students will have returned home before being given the chance to vote. For student political advocates, the new deadline has become a frustrating obstacle to plans for increasing student turnout at the polls.
Local organizer and current President of UNC Young Democrats, Megan Wagner explained how her organization has had to reimagine what voter outreach will look like on campus. “We are putting a particular emphasis on educating every single voter we reach about how and when to vote, instead of just focusing on voter registration, which is typically how campus outreach has been conducted in the past.”
Other student political advocates have expressed stronger frustrations with the party politics of the NCGA. “There should be a greater focus on the failure of Republican legislators to deliver fair maps in a timely manner that would allow students to vote at their college,” said College Democrats of North Carolina President and Appalachian State student, Jenna Kubiak.
Though students will have to circumvent the messy redistricting process on their own, the fight over gerrymandering in the state is far from over. With the future of NC redistricting likely playing out in the states' court rooms, Governor Cooper’s veto will not be the last North Carolinians hear about changes to midterm elections. Though lawmakers on both sides of the aisle remain vocal about how the debate should be settled, all eyes now turn towards the seven justices in Raleigh to shape this coming election cycle.