truthseekersjournal
By Will Doran WRAL state government reporter | April 30, 2025
Republicans have been trying for years to take control of elections decisions away from the governor’s office under Democrats Roy Cooper and Josh Stein. Those efforts have all been ruled unconstitutional, until now.
Control over elections administration in North Carolina could flip from Democratic to Republican control within hours, following a decision late Wednesday from the state Court of Appeals.
Elections decisions in North Carolina are made by political appointees, who make calls on issues such as where and when to open early voting sites, which allegations of campaign finance violations or voter fraud to refer to prosecutors, and whether to confirm election results.
Last week, a trial court ruled that Republican state lawmakers violated the constitution when they tried taking control of the elections board away from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein.
Today, the Republican-controlled state Court of Appeals overturned that decision. The two-sentence ruling offered no explanation for why the judges were overruling the trial court; it also didn’t name the judges who made the decision. And it came despite the judges hearing no oral arguments on the case.
The 15-judge court of appeals typically hears cases in panels of three judges. Because the court has 11 Republicans and four Democrats, its panels are almost always majority-Republican.
Wednesday’s ruling means that as soon as Thursday, the elections board could switch to GOP control. After Stein defeated Republican challenger Mark Robinson for governor in 2024, Republican legislators passed a law — which former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper unsuccessfully vetoed — putting elections in the hands of the new state auditor, Republican Dave Boliek, who is close with GOP legislative leadership.
With protested override, NC lawmakers sap power from governor, attorney general, other incoming Democrats
The state and county election boards all have five members. For years state law has given three of those five seats to the governor’s political party. The other two seats go to the next-largest political party. But ever since Democrat Roy Cooper unseated Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in 2016, Republican lawmakers have been trying to change that law to make sure Republicans, not Democrats, have control over elections. They’ve been unsuccessful, at least until now, with numerous attempts either struck down in court as unconstitutional or rejected at the ballot box by voters.
Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger has presided over all of those past unconstitutional efforts to shift power over elections to his party. Berger praised Wednesday’s ruling, which broke with those past legal precedents.
“Stein is desperately grasping to keep a partisan stranglehold on the Board of Elections, instead of working to make commonsense changes to improve election administration,” Berger wrote in a statement. “North Carolinians deserve to have a Board of Elections that works for them.”
A spokesman for the State Board of Elections declined to comment on Wednesday’s ruling. Stein said the ruling injects chaos into elections, and is unconstitutional. “Today’s Court of Appeals decision about the Board of Elections poses a threat to our democracy and the rule of law,” Stein wrote in a statement. “The Supreme Court should not allow it to stand.”
The ruling could affect administration of the 2026 midterms and beyond. But it could also affect the outcome of a still-uncalled race from 2024. The elections board has been at the center of a politically contentious lawsuit over whether to throw out thousands of ballots in Republican Jefferson Griffin’s attempt to unseat Democratic state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs.
Legal battle over NC ballots now plays out on two fronts with Supreme Court seat on the line
Griffin’s fellow Republicans on the Court of Appeals also overturned a trial court ruling in that case, in order to rule in his favor. Griffin also later won a partial victory at the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court. But Riggs and the elections board have been fighting that decision in federal court, and a GOP takeover of the elections board in the middle of those federal court fights could help Griffin if the new elections board begins siding with him.
Stein suggested that in addition to the lack of details explaining why the Court of Appeals was overturning past precedent on this issue, the fast timing of the ruling also indicated politics were at play rather than legal reasoning.
“I fear that this decision is the latest step in the partisan effort to steal a seat on the Supreme Court,” Stein wrote. “No emergency exists that can justify the Court of Appeals’ decision to interject itself at this point. The only plausible explanation is to permit [Boliek] to appoint a new State Board of Elections that will try to overturn the results of the Supreme Court race.”
A spokesman for Boliek didn’t respond to a request for comment on Stein’s accusation that he’s part of a broader GOP plot to steal last year’s election.
Also Wednesday, Stein immediately sent word to the North Carolina Supreme Court that he intends to appeal the ruling. Typically, big changes such as the proposed elections overhaul are put on hold while being appealed. However, it’s unclear what might happen if Boliek takes steps to overhaul the elections board quickly on Thursday before the Supreme Court can potentially step in. The state law, which the Court of Appeals put back into place Wednesday, transfers control of elections to Boliek starting Thursday.
Boliek’s office also didn’t respond to a request for comment on when he might appoint new elections board members.
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