The 2022 filing period was fraught — and complicated — from the beginning. The messy process continues, with a bill that would delay the primary election again, this time to June 7, currently at Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk for review.
Here’s a look at the main election updates, starting with the legislature’s November passage of new state political maps.
The Republican-led state legislature passed three new political maps — for U.S. Congress, N.C. House and N.C. Senate — along party lines. All of the new maps would give Republicans a sizable advantage in future elections even if the two parties roughly split the statewide vote 50-50, outside political analysis shows, with the new Congressional map expected to give Republicans a 10-4 or 11-3 advantage in 2022. Those who sued have alleged the maps use unlawful partisan gerrymandering and dilute the voting power of Black residents in many districts.
A lawsuit was issued against the maps the day the maps passed, with more expected.
Filing for the March 2022 primary was set to start at noon and end Dec. 17.
Shortly before filing was set to begin, an order to temporarily block filing for the U.S. House, N.C. Senate and N.C. house races was filed, and reversed later that evening. But on Dec. 8, the North Carolina Supreme Court halted filing for all races and delayed the primary election until May 17 due to pending gerrymandering lawsuits. The primary was originally scheduled for March 8.
Three superior court judges declined to strike down the congressional and General Assembly districts enacted by the Republican-controlled legislature in November. Later that evening, the State Board of Elections said candidate filing for the 2022 primary and rescheduled municipal elections would resume at 8 a.m. on Feb. 24 and end at noon March 4, for a May 17 primary. (The municipal elections, originally set to take place in November 2021, were pushed back due to the incorporation of delayed Census results.)
The state’s Supreme Court said it would hear lawyers’ arguments in pending redistricting litigation in a virtual hearing the morning of Feb. 2. This date gives the state Supreme Court little time to rule and keep the already once-delayed May 17 primary on schedule, according to previous statements from the state BOE.
The General Assembly passed a bill that would further delay the primary until June 7. The move was planned by Senate Republicans, the Raleigh News & Observer reported Jan. 17, and would give the Republican-majority state legislature more time to redraw the state’s political district maps if the N.C. Supreme Court rules them unconstitutional. Many state Democrats, including Gov. Roy Cooper, criticized the bill, and on Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers voted against it. The bill went to the governor’s desk; who ultimately vetoed it.
Cooper had 10 days to act on the bill before it automatically passes into law, excluding Sundays, which would be Jan. 29.
State Democrats criticized the Republicans’ efforts to delay the primary, saying the move seems to pressure the Supreme Court into letting lawmakers redraw the map themselves if the maps are overturned, rather than the court hiring an outside expert to do it.
Cooper vetoed the bill to further delay primaries to June 7. The primary is likely to occur May 17, but could yet be delayed if the legislature overrides the veto, or if the N.C. Supreme Court moves the date. An override is unlikely given that every Democrat previously voted against the bill.
"This bill is an additional attempt by Republican legislators to control the election timeline and undermine the voting process," Cooper said in a release. "The constitutionality of congressional and legislative districts is now in the hands of the North Carolina Supreme Court and the Court should have the opportunity to decide how much time is needed to ensure that our elections are constitutional."
Under the May 17 primary date, the deadline to finalize the contested maps is between Feb. 14 and 23.
The N.C. Supreme Court is set to hear the gerrymandering suit to decide whether the trial court’s order stands, or if the maps must be redrawn. The trial court presiding over the Jan. 11 decision had a 2-1 Republican majority, and its ruling relied heavily on a 5-4 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019, when that court’s conservative majority reached a similar conclusion. The N.C. Supreme Court, which will hear the Feb. 2 appeal, has a 4-3 Democratic majority.