Wake elections board vacancy filled in rush to comply with court order
The State Board of Elections filled a vacancy on the Wake County Board of Elections Sunday night so the county board could respond to a federal court order in a long-simmering redistricting case.
Posted — UpdatedWoodhouse ran unsuccessfully for Raleigh City Council in 2015 and is the cousin of Dallas Woodhouse, the state Republican Party's executive director. There was no discussion over his appointment.
Earlier this summer, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down legislative districts drawn for the two Wake County boards. While the appellate panel expressed the sentiment that the county should not use the unconstitutional districts, it did not give the court a complete roadmap as to what to do. Time is running short for the court and the county to put an election plan in place.
County boards of elections have only three members: two from the governor's party, which is the Republican Party right now, and one from the other major political party, currently the Democratic Party.
"The court's focus is on having timely and orderly elections while being faithful to the Fourth Circuit's mandate and governing precedent," Dever wrote in his order, which was entered Sunday. "As such, the court requests that the Wake County Board of Elections rank the four options listed above, from most feasible to have orderly elections to least feasible to have orderly elections."
Giving Wake County until 4 p.m. Monday to respond, Dever told county elections officials to rank four options in terms of how quickly and efficiently they could be carried out:
- using the districts the 4th Circuit declared unconstitutional
- reverting to the maps drawn in 2011 that lawmakers replaced with the unconstitutional maps
- using illustrative maps put forward by Rep. Rosa Gill, D-Wake, during the trial
- using illustrative maps put forward by state legislative leaders in court filings last week
The plaintiffs in the case, led by the Raleigh Wake Citizens Association, have objected to the newly drawn maps put forward by lawmakers. For their part, lawmakers have objected to using any plan that doesn't roughly follow the plans they put forward.
Late last week, the Wake County board announced it would meet by phone at 5:30 p.m. Monday. It's unclear if that meeting will stand, or if the newly constituted trio will get together earlier in the day in order to respond to Dever by the court's 4 p.m. deadline.
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