Roy Cooper has more votes, but Pat McCrory still has plenty of lawyers. This week in CIB:

Campaign Watch: Challenges Delay Cooper Win Confirmation

We’re still waiting for North Carolina’s post-election processes to confirm Roy Cooper’s win as governor-elect. Here’s the landscape as of CIB press time.

Actual vote count: As of Friday, Roy Cooper’s winning margin over Pat McCrory stood at more than 10,000 votes—enough to cut off McCrory’s right to call for an automatic statewide recount. With 98 of 100 counties showing an “official” total on the NC State Board of Elections (SBOE) website, the Cooper lead was 10,263. That meant that Cooper’s lead had more than doubled since the unofficial election night count, as counties totaled up provisional ballots and mail-in absentee ballots that arrived at the last minute. However, three matters need to be resolved before Cooper’s win can be certified by the SBOE:

Bladen absentees: SBOE staff need to finish examining about 150 questioned mail-in absentee ballots from Bladen County. (Bladen and Columbus are the two counties still showing as “unofficial” totals on the SBOE site as of Friday evening. There was no report regarding why Columbus was showing as “unofficial”.)

Durham early votes: The SBOE last week ordered Durham County to conduct a machine recount of about 90,000 one-stop early votes. While there was no evidence that those ballots had been mis-counted or tampered with, a majority of the SBOE members agreed to order the recount after a lawyer for the NC Republican Party (who lives in Durham) protested the count. The SBOE’s three Republican members accepted the lawyer’s argument that a malfunction in the computer software which required the vote totals to be added manually created enough of an “irregularity” to require the recount. The Durham Board of Elections indicated that it would begin the recount over the weekend. It asked the SBOE to permit it to report the results on Wednesday, but the SBOE directed it to report by 7 p.m. this evening (Monday). Both sides agreed that the vote totals from Durham were unlikely to change significantly through this recount.

Raleigh lawyers: The SBOE itself is defending against a challenge by the ‘conservative’ advocacy group Civitas Institute, arguing that no one-stop early votes should count statewide until local county boards of election had completed confirmation checks on the address of voters who registered and voted at the same time during early voting. Such a delay has never been a part of state law for these votes. A federal District Court judge will hear arguments this Thursday (December 8) before deciding whether to grant Civitas’ request for a court order that the counting of those votes be delayed. In addition to the SBOE itself, three Watauga County voters who used one-stop same-day registration and voting will be represented by attorneys arguing that the Civitas request would create illegal discrimination against qualified voters.

The state deadline for the SBOE to certify the election results is this Friday, December 9. Depending upon the outcomes of the three processes noted above, however, the final results certification could be delayed.

Legislative Watch: Will General Assembly Stack the Court?

Observers will watch closely when the General Assembly reports to Raleigh on December 13 for a special legislative session called by Gov. Pat McCrory, ostensibly for the purpose of considering special hurricane disaster relief. Many are concerned that the legislature will also take up far more controversial measures, including a proposal to “pack” the NC Supreme Court with two new members.

Such a move would be in partisan response to the decision by statewide voters to replace outgoing Justice Bob Edmunds with incoming Justice-elect Mike Morgan. Edmunds is a Republican, while Morgan is a Democrat, and the change flips the majority of Court members from 4-3 Republican to 4-3 Democratic.

On an issue basis, the change is considered critical in determining how closely the state Supreme Court will be inclined to critique state legislative redistricting plans for partisan bias. As those following state politics are aware, both chambers of the NC General Assembly are under Republican control, and the legislative redistricting plans they have approved have been designed to maximize Republican-leaning districts. Even if the legal questions regarding those districts remain in federal court, the degree of deference (or lack thereof) to legislative preferences will potentially be critical on many other environment-relevant issues.

However, the General Assembly also has the authority under the NC Constitution to add two seats to the NC Supreme Court. If the legislature does so this month, then outgoing Gov. Pat McCrory could appoint the two new members of the Court. Those members would then serve until their seats came up for election in 2018. That would permit the maintenance of a Republican majority on that Court during a key period for consideration of redistricting plans.

It would also bring severe criticism from party-neutral ‘good government’ advocates who have been criticizing the idea as a flagrant partisan power move designed to negate the results of the 2016 judicial elections.

At this time, state legislative leaders have denied that the maneuver is actively under consideration, but they have also refused to rule it out as a possibility.

Judicial Watch: New Legislative Elections Ordered for 2017

Meanwhile, a federal judicial panel has ordered the NC General Assembly to try again to draw new state legislative district maps that don’t create illegal racial gerrymanders. The court ordered that new maps be approved by March 2017, and that special state legislative elections be held later that year to elect new legislators. If the legislature doesn’t act by the March 15 deadline, the court may adopt districts.

This latest order is likely to be appealed by the defendant legislature/state. If it stands, however, it will present a remarkable new opportunity for environmental advocates to campaign for the election of more environment-friendly candidates. NCLCV will closely monitor the court process and prepare for additional action next year.

That’s our report for this week.