Senate votes to override election law veto

The state Senate voted Monday night to override Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of a measure that would cancel all judicial primary elections in 2018.

Posted 11:46 p.m. Oct 16, 2017 — Updated 2:48 a.m. Oct 17, 2017

Laura Leslie

RALEIGH, N.C. — The state Senate voted Monday night to override Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of a measure that would cancel all judicial primary elections in 2018.

The House is expected to follow suit Tuesday, although that vote may be delayed.

Senate Bill 656 would also make it easier for third-party and unaffiliated candidates to get on the ballot for statewide or municipal races, but not in legislative races. It would also lower the percentage of primary votes required to avoid a runoff.

Republican House and Senate leaders say they're canceling the judicial primaries because they intend to redraw the state's Superior Court and District Court districts by next spring, so the primary would likely be delayed.

"It affords an opportunity for the General Assembly to have additional deliberations and receive input on" the proposed new districts, said Sen. Dan Bishop, R-Mecklenburg. "It also allows for consideration of alternative methods of selection of judges."

Bishop didn't deny that January's session might include a proposed constitutional amendment to make judges appointed, rather than elected. However, that would have to go before the voters for approval, he said, noting that Cooper backed a similar proposal during his time in the Senate in the 1990s.

However, the measure goes beyond trial court primaries. It also cancels the primaries for Supreme Court and Court of Appeals seats, which are statewide races that wouldn't be affected by judicial redistricting.

Sen. Jeff Jackson, D-Mecklenburg, said he had asked for but been given no reason for canceling those primaries.

"The governor was right to veto this bill," Jackson said. "No one in this chamber is being honest about why those primaries will be eliminated."

The vote was 26-15, with some Republicans voting with Democrats against the override. The constitutional requirement for a veto override is three-fifths of the members present and voting. With just 41 senators in session, the threshold for the override was 25 votes.

After Cooper issued his veto of the bill last week, House and Senate leaders said they didn't expect to take up an override vote until they return in January for a special session. However, those plans changed just a few days later.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger explained that the change was "to kind of clear the air a little bit so folks would know that we were either going to have elections or not [have] elections in these judicial races for the primaries."

"As we thought about it, waiting until January to create that certainty was probably something that was a little inconsistent with what we had said before," Berger, R-Rockingham, said. "We just want to go ahead and get it taken care of."

The Senate also voted to modify the adjournment resolution to push the date back to Friday, something the House requested in case Republicans aren't able to muster a three-fifths majority Tuesday to complete the override.

House Speaker Tim Moore said the chamber won't take up the resolution to push back adjournment unless it has to.

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