(This was published Wednesday, July 13, in the Greensboro News & Record.)
It’s possible the legislature will be called back into session to fix Wake County commissioner and school board districts that were struck down by a federal appeals court. We hope it doesn’t happen. In the last special session March 23, the legislature came up with House Bill 2. It only needs a day to wreak havoc.
Another example is Senate Bill 667, which was the perfect cover for legislative mischief: 19 pages of proposed changes to state insurance law that could put an actuary to sleep.
It was introduced on March 26, 2015, passed the Senate a month later and then went into hibernation in a House committee.
On June 30, 2016, it snapped to life. But not as an insurance bill. It was rearranged into an omnibus elections bill and rushed to approval in both chambers the same day. Among its new provisions was this bombshell: “It is the intent of the General Assembly to provide for even-numbered year municipal elections.”
Why? Nearly all cities and towns hold elections in odd-numbered years so they aren’t overwhelmed by all the attention paid to state and national candidates. High Point experimented with city elections in even years but declared the experience a failure and changed back. But the legislature suddenly issued this edict, which will take effect in 2020, no matter what any cities themselves might want.
The bill also sets a new procedure for listing names on the ballot in this year’s election for judges of the N.C. Court of Appeals. It just happens that the name of Phil Berger Jr., son of Senate leader Phil Berger, will be listed first. Maybe that’s a coincidence. The real problem is that candidates who are registered Republicans get a more favorable ballot placement than those who are Democrats and Libertarians, and that unaffiliated candidates will be listed last. Elections for the Court of Appeals are supposed to be nonpartisan. It’s unfair to determine ballot placement on the basis of party registration. In races where voters are unfamiliar with the candidates, names that appear higher on the ballot tend to receive more votes. SB 667 tilts the playing field for partisan advantage, even in an officially nonpartisan election.
The only provision of SB 667 that was given any public discussion requires the attorney general to represent the state when a local act is challenged in court. This stems in part from Greensboro’s lawsuit to block House Bill 263, which was passed last year to restructure the City Council and change the election system.
Attorney General Roy Cooper declined to defend the act, saying his lawyers were tied up with other cases. Maybe he had no interest in defending it, anyway.
Every time it enacts election changes, the legislature claims to be restoring confidence in government. That goal is incompatible with its blitzkrieg approach to controversial bills.
If there’s another special session, it could take a second shot at passing the defeated Asheville City Council bill or even go after Greensboro again. No, every city is safer when the legislature is out of session. It should stay out.
