Cooper vetoes judicial bill, signs budget corrections bill
Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed legislation Monday that would have canceled next year's judicial primary elections, saying he saw it as a precursor to a Republican push to appoint judges instead of having the public elect them.
Posted — UpdatedCooper signed a separate bill, Senate Bill 582, making a number of changes to the state budget. Among other things, the bill does away with what would have been a 2020 sunset for the state's film industry grants program. Cooper didn't mention a specific project but said the industry needs more certainty in North Carolina.
Leaders for the General Assembly's Republican majority said they needed a time cushion to continue working on a planned overhaul of voting districts for trial court judges statewide. The plan, House Bill 717, passed the House last week but has not been heard in the Senate.
Cooper called canceling the primaries a "first step toward a constitutional amendment that will rig the system so that the legislature picks everybody's judges."
Something like that has been discussed in the Senate, which has seemed cool to the House's plan to redraw districts for judges. Changing the constitution to allow appointments instead of elections would require a statewide voter referendum.
"The rumors Gov. Cooper cited to justify his veto aren’t in this bill, which simply gives lawmakers time to conduct the thorough and deliberate study of North Carolina’s judicial elections that groups across the political spectrum – including members of our judiciary – have repeatedly called for," Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, chairman of the Senate Elections Committee, said in a statement.
"This needs to be done immediately," Cooper said in his release.
Senate Bill 656 passed both the House and the Senate with veto-proof margins, suggesting the Republican majority will be able to overturn the Democratic governor's veto. Speaker of the House Tim Moore said Monday legislators will address the issue during a planned January session.
In addition to cancelling judicial primaries, the bill cuts the plurality threshold to win an election from 40 percent of the vote to 30 percent, making it easier to win crowded contests without a runoff.
The bill also would lower the number of petition signatures needed for unaffiliated candidates to make statewide ballots from 2 percent of turnout in the last governor's election to 1.5 percent. In municipal races it would go from 4 percent of the area's qualified voters to 1.5 percent.
Legislative offices would not be affected, and neither would county offices.
"This legislation makes needed, nonpartisan reforms to our ballot access laws and gives judicial candidates the time they need to analyze any forthcoming changes to judicial maps that the General Assembly may make," Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, chairman of the House Elections Committee, said in a statement.
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