Candidate filing for North Carolina U.S. House of Representatives, as well as all General Assembly seats in the state, have been halted by a court order.
Candidate filing for those seats, along with local municipal seats, judgeships, and other local offices, opened today as scheduled at noon.
However, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has now granted a temporary stay on filing for the statewide and congressional seats at least through noon on Thursday.
On Friday of last week, a three-judge panel ruled against those seeking to stop the filing. At least two lawsuits had been filed seeking to stop the filings and to overturn the state’s congressional and General Assembly new district boundaries, drawn up using the 2020 U.S. Census figures.
In one of those suits, by the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters Inc., plaintiffs argued the new boundaries were the result of “extreme partisan” gerrymander that gave the Republican Party an overwhelming advantage in the state’s U.S. house seats, even though the state is relatively evenly divided among GOP and Democratic voters.
This is far from the first time the GOP has faced such action. The party redrew congressional and General Assembly maps after the 2010 Census to such a degree that the state was embroiled in lawsuits challenging those seats until finally being forced by court order to redraw the maps in 2016, and again in 2017.
Monday’s order means no one can file to run for any U.S. House seat in North Carolina or in any General Assembly seat. The court has given the state and GOP officials until noon on Thursday to respond.
“A ruling on the petition will be made upon Defendants’ filing of their responses or the expiration of the response period if no response is filed,” the court order stated.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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