Supreme Court to consider fundamental change in elections authority

With the country deeply divided over whether to trust elections, North Carolina wants to give state legislatures complete oversight.

Legal battles over partisan and racial gerrymandering “are as North Carolina as barbecue, tobacco fields and hot, humid summer days,” says the executive director of the state Common Cause chapter.

But the case that the Supreme Court hears Wednesday brings stakes like no other.

The justices will take up what both sides agree could be a fundamental, even radical change in the way federal elections are conducted. It could give state legislatures sole authority to set the rules for the contests, subject only to intervention by Congress, even if the actions of legislators violate voter protections laid out in state constitutions and result in extreme partisan gerrymandering for congressional seats.

Advanced by North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders, the “independent state legislature theory” could negate a governor’s veto, end the oversight of courts enforcing the state constitution and cast doubt on citizen-implemented initiatives aimed at taking partisan politics out of map-drawing and election rules.

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