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Judicial Filings Open In NC As Potential Changes Loom

SEAN BUETER/WFDD

Monday marks the opening of the filing period for statewide judicial races.

On the November ballot there will be one state Supreme Court seat and three court of appeals seats. Voters across the state will have a chance to pick in those races. Local races across North Carolina will include a total of more than 150 superior and district court judgeships.

Filing ends June 29.

The GOP-led legislature did away with judicial primaries this year. That means the candidate with the most votes will win regardless of how many people are running.

And this year, those races will be partisan for the first time in several years. It's all part of changes to how judges are elected that have been fought over since last year in Raleigh and in the courts. Some of the proposed changes are still being contested.

On Friday, Gov. Roy Cooper announced his decision to block a measure that adjusts many judicial election districts in Wake, Mecklenburg, Pender and New Hanover counties.

Cooper also wants the old method of nonpartisan judicial races.

In a release announcing his vetoes, Cooper said, "continued election meddling for partisan advantage weakens public confidence. Judges' races should be free of partisan labels."

As for the judicial election redistricting bill, Cooper kept to his longstanding narrative since remapping proposals began surfacing a year ago that the General Assembly is harming justice by trying to "rig the courts by reducing the people's vote."

Republicans are expected to attempt to override the veto this week. The GOP can override vetoes at will as long as their House and Senate caucuses remain united.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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