With newfound authority, NC's GOP auditor makes election board appointments
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In a move that will transform how North Carolina conducts its elections, Republican state auditor Dave Boliek appointed three GOP members to the state's board of elections Thursday, less than 24 hours after a court ruled he had the power to do so.
Why it matters: Democratic Gov. Josh Stein has been fighting GOP state legislative leaders in court for months to block a new law that strips elections board appointment powers from the governor and grants them instead to the state auditor.
- The law, upheld by an unnamed three-judge North Carolina Court of Appeals panel Wednesday, has the immediate impact of flipping the elections board from majority Democrat to majority Republican for the first time in nearly a decade.
- Boliek, who was elected state auditor in November, is the first Republican to hold the office since 2009.
Driving the news: Boliek appointed three Republicans nominated by the state GOP to the five-member board Thursday.
- A maximum of three members of each party are allowed on the board, meaning whichever party holds the office that's tasked with appointing members to the board will have a majority.
- The North Carolina Democratic Party has also presented a list of nominees to Boliek, of which he will pick two.
The big picture: Boliek's move Thursday is the latest show of force from North Carolina Republicans, who have consolidated power in the state in recent years.
- In addition to holding a majority in the state legislature, Republicans make up a majority on the North Carolina Court of Appeals (which has issued more than one ruling in the GOP's favor in recent weeks), the state Supreme Court and, now, the state's board of elections.
Catch up quick: Just a few weeks after Stein won the election in November, the Republican-controlled legislature moved in a lame duck session to strip power from the governor.
- The bill's passage into law threatened to further weaken the gubernatorial power of North Carolina's governor — which is already one of the weakest of any governor in the country.
- Stein, along with former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who was still in office when the bill became law over his objections, quickly filed a lawsuit to block the legislation.
- Stein asked the state Supreme Court to block Wednesday's appeals court ruling from going into effect, per The News & Observer, but the state's highest court did not rule in time.