North Carolina trial-court judges refused Friday to delay state legislative elections in and around Raleigh next month while litigation challenging several House districts continues. A three-judge panel declined to halt the May 8 primary for at least four Wake County House races because voting is already happening. The decision also likely preserves the use of those and surrounding Wake districts in the November general election. General Assembly boundaries have been redrawn since last summer by Republican legislators and federal courts, the result of other lawsuits. In the latest case, state NAACP, League of Women Voters of North Carolina and other groups and voters argued the GOP-controlled General Assembly went too far last August when lawmakers altered four Wake House districts.
Since those districts didn’t touch two others that courts had found to be racial gerrymanders, their lawsuit says, altering the four violated a provision in the state constitution otherwise prohibiting redistricting during the middle of a decade.
Attorneys for legislative leaders disagree and have said lawmakers were within their responsibilities to redraw them.
In their order, the Superior Court judges gave the plaintiffs hope they would be ultimately be successful, writing they “have demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits of their claims.”
Full Article: Judges won’t halt N Carolina county’s legislative elections.