State Sen. David Curtis resigned Saturday, the day after the General Assembly completed its chief annual work session.

Curtis lost his seat in the May primary to Ted Alexander in the Republican primary election.

Republican leaders in Lincoln, Gaston, and Iredell counties will have to select someone to fill the remainder of Curtis’s two-year term.

The North Carolina Legislature adjourned on June 29, 2018.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly spent most of the session passing budget adjustments and overrode eight of Gov. Roy Cooper’s 10 vetoes.

Senate Bill 655 was passed and signed by Gov. Cooper last week. The bill changes the date primary elections are held from May to March and is effective January 1, 2019.

The Legislature is sending a voter photo identification mandate to be decided by voters in November.

Lawmakers are scheduled to reconvene on November 27, 2018.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper will appoint members to the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement while litigation over the structure of the board is pending.

The Democratic governor has sued Republican legislative leaders three times over legislation creating different versions of the joint board. The latest lawsuit was filed by the governor on March 13.

Cooper won the two previous lawsuits over versions creating an eight-member board comprised of four Democrats and four Republicans. He sued again, arguing the now nine-member board still prevents him from having control over carrying out elections laws.

A state board administering elections and campaign finance laws has been vacant since last June while the constitutionality of the joint board has been litigated.

A North Carolina Superior Court three-judge panel kept in place the recently merged bipartisan state board of elections and ethics enforcement but voided a portion of the law regulating how members would be appointed to that board.

The ruling was in response to a mandate from the North Carolina Supreme Court after they held the membership of and appointment to the bipartisan board was a separation of powers violation.

In response to the Supreme Court’s holding, lawmakers passed House Bill 90 giving the governor the authority to fire any member of the board, so long as he fills the spot with a member from the same party. The bill also allows the governor to appoint a ninth, unaffiliated member, to avoid deadlock.

Gov. Cooper said publicly he would let House Bill 90 become law without his signature, despite his disagreement with it.

Additionally, he has filed a motion with the North Carolina Supreme Court challenging the three-judge panel’s decision and seeking clarity regarding the scope of the Supreme Court’s January holding, which affects the validity of House Bill 90 if it becomes law.

The North Carolina General Assembly adjourned its reconvened session on Tuesday, February 13. Lawmakers passed a single piece of legislation, House Bill 90.

The bill reduces class-sizes for kindergarten through third grade in addition to changing the makeup of the elections and ethics board.

Last month, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the board, which was supposed to be comprised of four Democrats and four Republicans.

The bill would add a ninth board member who could be neither a Democrat nor a Republican.

Gov. Cooper has 30 days to sign, veto, or let the bill become law without his signature.

The North Carolina Supreme Court struck down a 2017 law overhauling the state’s Elections Board and Ethics Commission. Session Law 2017-6 merged the existing state Board of Elections and state Ethics Commission and created the new Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement.

The court held provisions in the law concerning the membership of and appointments to new bipartisan state board constituted a separation of powers violation.

Although the office functions of the ethics commission and elections boards merged last year, Gov. Roy Cooper did not make any appointments to the new board while this lawsuit made its way through the courts.

The North Carolina General Assembly will convene for a special session on January 10 to address several topics, including judicial reform.

Lawmakers may consider eliminating judicial elections and instead institute an appointment process for selecting judges.

Vi Lyles defeated Kenny Smith to become Charlotte’s next mayor.

Lyles captured 59 percent of the vote with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

Lyles will become the first African-American woman to become mayor of Charlotte.

The General Assembly adjourned on October 17, after finishing a special session convening on October 4.

The General Assembly overrode Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 656, a bill canceling North Carolina’s judicial primaries next year.

The Legislature will reconvene on January 10, 2018.

The North Carolina General Assembly adjourned on August 31 after finishing a two-week special session.

Members voted on new legislative districts per court order and voted to override two vetoes by the governor.

The Legislature will reconvene on October 4, 2017, to consider constitutional amendments, election regulations, and to draw new judicial districts.

The North Carolina General Assembly convened for a special session on August 3 to address unresolved conference reports and amend the previous adjournment resolution, cancelling a previously scheduled September 6 special session.

Lawmakers will now convene on August 18 to address redistricting.

The change in session dates was needed after a federal three-judge panel ordered lawmakers to draw new legislative district maps by September 1.

A panel of three federal judges ordered North Carolina lawmakers to draw new maps to eliminate racially gerrymandered districts by September 1, 2017.

The judges also rejected a request for special elections to be held in March 2018 for redrawn districts.

The next legislative elections will take place as regularly scheduled in November 2018.

The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that pending Gov. Roy Cooper’s legal challenge of Senate Bill 68, which combines state elections and ethics boards, the new merged board can remain vacant.

The boards merged in June into the state Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement after a three-judge panel ruled against the governor, but Cooper has yet to appoint any board members.

With local elections coming up in the fall, some county elections boards are finding themselves in tough positions awaiting appointments to fill seats left open due to resignations because the state board appoints county board members.

The case is scheduled for arguments at the Supreme Court on August 28.

On June 30, the North Carolina General Assembly adjourned. The resolution to adjourn has lawmakers scheduled to reconvene in August and September.

The session scheduled for August 3, 2017 will primarily address any veto overrides; however, the adjournment resolution grants lawmakers the ability to use the session to take up measures that got stuck in House and Senate negotiations in the final weeks of the regular session.

The September 6, 2017, session will mostly focus on redistricting.

The adjournment resolution also set the regular session to reconvene on May 16, 2018.