North Carolina GOP strips Democratic governor of veto over controversial election bill

Republicans in the North Carolina legislature have overridden Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of a controversial bill that would roll back his ability to appoint election boards and replace the current system with equally divided legislature-appointed boards in which Republicans can deadlock election decisions, The Washington Postreported on Tuesday.

Historically, North Carolina's state and county election boards are run by the party of the governor. Republicans have said the bill will take politics out of election administration, with House Speaker Tim Moore saying, “When it comes to agencies doing their jobs, politics ought to not be part of it.”

Cooper warned in a prior veto of the legislation that it would have the opposite effect, saying the change “could doom our state’s elections to gridlock and severely limit early voting.” Other state officials have expressed worries it will particularly limit voting access and cause long lines on college campuses, where Democrats typically dominate elections.

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Since losing the governorship in 2016, North Carolina Republicans have been trying to pass legislation giving themselves more control over state election boards, with previous measures being blocked by courts. The GOP now holds a majority on the state Supreme Court, and recently gained a veto-proof majority in the legislature after lawmaker Tricia Cotham defected from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

A New York Times report earlier this year suggested that Cotham, who represents a heavily Democratic district, may have been recruited by state Republicans to run in the first place.

The law is almost certain to be challenged by a new round of litigation, as have most North Carolina GOP efforts to change election rules. In one of the most famous instances, a federal court voided a 2016 law limiting how voters can verify their identity at the polls, admonishing that it targeted Black voters "with almost surgical precision."