The North Carolina General Assembly adjourned the regular session until April 28 after meeting for a single day.

The Senate attempted but failed to override vetoes by Gov. Roy Cooper on teacher pay and the budget.

Before adjourning, lawmakers unanimously approved additional funding for the state’s scholarship for children of wartime veterans, which is expected to be signed into law by Cooper.

The North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill to return the administration of elections, ethics, and lobbying regulations to the 2016 structure.

Voters defeated a constitutional amendment in November to establish an eight-member Bipartisan Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement, which would have kept the current structure in place.

An additional provision in the bill requires re-elections when the result of an election is investigated. This would require refiling and participation in a primary and not merely a runoff.

Passage of the voter ID law would not impact any possible 2018 re-election.

The bill further addresses absentee-by-mail ballots which are the topic of the current 9^th District board of elections investigation.

The bill now awaits Governor Roy Cooper’s approval.

This week, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued a call for a special session of the state’s legislature to address damage done by Hurricane Florence.

Gov. Cooper intends to call lawmakers back to work on Tuesday, October 2, 2018, to get state funding approved for recovery efforts.

An official proclamation for the special session has not yet been issued but it is expected in coming weeks.

This will be the third special session called to address hurricane damage in the state’s history.

The North Carolina General Assembly was called into special session yesterday to begin today, August 24, in order rewrite ballot amendment language to shift appointment powers from the governor to the Legislature.

Speaker Tim Moore said legislators plan to make revisions “because the proposals provide a popular bipartisan balance in our state government that will benefit the people of North Carolina.”

This is the second special session this summer to address the ballot language.

Republican legislative leaders in North Carolina are considering coming back to Raleigh to rewrite two ballot questions because a court blocked them from being voted on in November.

Gov. Roy Cooper and the NAACP took issue with the ballot language, and the court ruled in their favor, agreeing the language was unclear.

Legislative leaders, among others in the case, have filed appeals motions.

After receiving at least three-fifths of the vote in each chamber, the North Carolina Senate gave final approval to a proposed constitutional amendment to alter the way the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement is appointed.

The proposal switches the power to make appointments to the board from the governor to the Legislature.

Previously, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper had sued Republican legislative leaders multiple times over legislation creating different versions of the joint board.

The amendment requires a simple majority at the ballot box to become effective on January 1, 2019.

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 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 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 8, North Carolina lawmakers voted to reject Gov. Roy Cooper’s call for a special concurrent session to redraw district voting maps.

Lawmakers accuse Cooper of overstepping his constitutional authority to call special sessions in extraordinary circumstances in this case because the General Assembly is already in session.

The rejected special session comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 28 districts unconstitutional due to racial gerrymandering.

Legislative leaders indicated they plan to wait for instructions from the courts before redrawing district maps.

On June 7, Gov. Roy Cooper called a 14-day special session for North Carolina lawmakers to redraw district voting maps.

The session begins June 8 and will run concurrently with the regular session.

The special concurrent session comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 28 districts unconstitutional due to racial gerrymandering.

On June 1, a three-judge panel unanimously dismissed Gov. Roy Cooper’s legal challenge against Senate Bill 68.

Senate Bill 68 combines state elections and ethics boards, and became law when the House and Senate voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill.

A spokesman for the Democratic governor said shortly after the ruling that Cooper plans to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.