House OKs court redistricting, elections, school safety bills

House lawmakers Monday night gave tentative approval, largely along party lines, to proposals to redraw judicial and court districts in about a dozen counties.

The House also gave final approval to various programs designed to improve school safety and an elections bill that will stop candidates defeated in a party primary from representing a different party in November.

The two judicial redistricting measures, House Bill 1037 and Senate Bill 757, were rolled out in the House Rules Committee on Friday with little public notice.

Rep. Justin Burr, R-Stanly, described the two as minor changes compared to his original proposal to redraw judicial districts statewide. He said the intent was to "realign" District Court, Superior Court and prosecutorial districts to make them more similar to each other and to even out population differences.

However, Senate Bill 757 makes major changes to judicial districts in Mecklenburg and Wake counties. It would subdivide the counties into districts so judicial candidates wouldn't run countywide.

Questions arose on both sides of the aisle about exactly what the measures would do in specific districts, and technical amendments had to be offered to correct mistakes in the legislation.

"You see the confusion that’s going on – that’s what happens when you roll out new maps on a Friday afternoon," argued Rep. Darren Jackson, D-Wake. "It’s just not the way to be doing these types of changes, especially for things that have been pending since last year."

Both redistricting measures are scheduled to receive a final House vote Tuesday.

School safety

House Bill 938 is the product of a special school safety committee House Speaker Tim Moore created in the wake of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla. It calls for establishing peer-to-peer support groups at middle and high schools, requiring all schools to conduct vulnerability assessments each year, standardizing training for school resource officers and requiring charter schools to hold annual active shooter drills.

"This is only the beginning. I hope and pray we can get to the end," said Rep. John Torbett, R-Gaston, who co-chaired the House Select Committee on School Safety.

Some Democrats criticized the measure as inadequate, noting it doesn't include any provisions on gun safety or mental health.

"This is a giant missed opportunity," said Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford.

"I think we'll receive an incomplete on school safety," said Rep. Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe.

Several Democrats tried to offer amendments to address those perceived shortcomings, but Moore ruled them all out of order.

"Members are free to run these bills if they like, but frankly, they are not germane to this bill," he said.

Rep. Joe John, D-Wake, who suggested requiring all 911 centers statewide to accept text messages, said he couldn't think of anything more germane to protect students hiding in their classrooms from a gunman to allow them to send a text notifying authorities of the situation.

"This is purely to help students stay alive and safe," Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, said of her proposal for a "red flag" law in North Carolina to allow firearms to be taken out of the hands of anyone deemed a threat to themselves or others.

Despite the dispute, the overall bill passed 111-0.

Elections changes

Senate Bill 486 was largely uncontroversial after extensive committee work, but one provision sparked a strange alliance between ultra-conservative Republicans and House Democrats.

The provision, sometimes called a "sore loser clause," says a candidate for one party who loses a primary cannot then run in the general election for a third party – Green, Libertarian and Constitution – expected to appear on the ballot in November.

Some members of the Constitution Party, which is expected to be granted ballot access by the State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement later this month, had discussed nominating Rep. Beverly Boswell, R-Dare, as their candidate in House District 6. Boswell lost the GOP primary for that seat in May.

"Doing this at this time bears an appearance that it may be targeting specific individuals," said Rep. Larry Pittman, R-Cabarrus, who ran an unsuccessful amendment to strip the provision from the bill. "That’s something I feel uncomfortable doing."

"It’s just going to make a mess of the system this year. It’s not fair to change the rules after the game has started," agreed Jackson, adding that the Constitution Party has already threatened to sue over the clause.

But Rep. Jeff Collins, R-Nash, disagreed.

"I don’t know why anybody would get two shots at the same election," Collins said. "To me, that’s ridiculous."

The bill, which also calls for criminal background checks for elections workers, won final approval in the House 66-44 and now returns to the Senate for concurrence.

Municipal charter schools

Across the hall, the Senate voted 27-18 in favor of legislation that would allow four Charlotte suburbs to start their own charter schools after striking language about teachers at any such schools participating in the state retirement system.

Sen. Dan Bishop, R-Mecklenburg, noted that charter school employees are already eligible for state benefits but said the change was made to ensure the measure was a local bill – and not subject to a potential veto.

Democrats have criticized the legislation as a way to resegregate Mecklenburg County schools, and the state NAACP said Monday that it might sue to block the legislation.

The bill heads back to the House for final approval.