Cooper
Western Carolina University’s Dr. Christopher Cooper explained that the Supreme Court’s decision for delaying the primary election has everything to do with how the lines were drawn during redistricting.
“The maps were passed, and our Governor does not have veto power over maps,” Cooper said. “So, it is just the General Assembly that made this decision on the maps. Once the maps were passed, there were three lawsuits. One was on race and two were on partisanship. With the race one, they said no. With the partisan ones, they kind of put them together and the court initially said, “No, preliminary junction is denied, we are going to move forward.’ That was on that Friday. So, at noon on Monday, filing was supposed to start. At 11:45 a.m., on Monday, the court jumped in and said they were putting in a preliminary junction and putting a pause on the filing period. Then, at 6 p.m., on Monday, the court said they could start filing again. So, they start filing on Tuesday. Then, the final thing happens, and the court said they were going to delay filing and as a matter of fact, delay primary too.”
The key thing to make note of, according to Cooper, is that the delay is for all offices.
“It is not just for the ones being contested,” Cooper said. “It’s not just for General Assembly and Congress. It is from dog catcher to U.S. Senate. The court then said they wanted to have a hearing by Jan. 11. So, they are going to move pretty fast.”
For voters, Cooper said another thing to know is that the primaries have been moved to May, and that the maps might look a little different than they do now.
“We will just have to see,” Cooper said. “Hopefully we will have some sort of a resolution fairly soon. I would expect that no matter what happens after Jan. 11, they will probably be appealed. It will probably end up at the State Supreme Court, where it is 4:3 Democrat, for whatever that is worth.”
Cooper said the verdict could affect the 14th Congressional District, could affect the margins of the 50th State Senate and won’t affect the 119 at all.
“People are trying to figure out what is really in flux,” Cooper said. “For somebody who lives in Highlands, the only thing really in flux are what does the 14th District look like, and to some small percentage what does the 50th District look like, but people who live in Highlands, are going to be in the 14th and they are going to be in the 50th.”
With the whole situation coming down to redistricting, Cooper said North Carolina has always had a history of gerrymandering.
“Back when the democrats were in charge, they gerrymandered,” Cooper said. “The court jumped in and said that they crossed the line. Last time, the court jumped in and said the Republicans were taking it too far. This is a 50/50 state. It truly is the purple of purple states. The challenge is whether our lines should reflect that purple nature or not and these lines do not.”
With the delay of the primaries, Cooper said it has been done before, but most people don’t like change.
“I think the delay of primaries is really just one more change to voting and people don’t like change when it comes to voting,” Cooper said. “I think it comes down to your view on these maps. If you think the maps are fair, then you’re probably not happy about it. If you think the maps aren’t fair, then this is probably a good thing. We’ve been down this road before in North Carolina many times. We have had multiple delays in the primaries for the past two decades.”
- By Christopher Lugo