North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced Thursday he has vetoed a bill that would remake state and local elections boards.

The measure, penned and backed by GOP lawmakers, would split each board evenly between Republicans and Democrats. And it would give state lawmakers, not the governor, the authority to appoint their members.

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In a veto message, Cooper, a Democrat, warned that the bill could lead to partisan gridlock and lead to electoral chaos in 2024.

"It also creates a grave risk that Republican legislators or courts would be empowered to change the results of an election if they don’t like the winner," Cooper said in a statement. "That’s a serious threat to our democracy, particularly after the nation just saw a presidential candidate try to strong-arm state officials into reversing his losing election result."

Republican lawmakers hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly. If the state House and Senate vote to override Cooper's veto, the bill will become law. Republicans have rejected numerous other vetoes this legislative session.

Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke, responded in a statement that the change would improve voter confidence.

"Voters should be asking themselves why Gov. Cooper is so desperate to maintain his partisan grip on the State Board of Elections," Daniel said. "I look forward to once again overriding Gov. Cooper's veto and establishing truly bipartisan boards of elections in North Carolina."

Cooper previously announced that he would veto Senate Bill 749 as well as its companion bill, Senate Bill 747, which removes a three-day grace period for mail-in ballots to arrive at local elections boards.

It's the latest chapter in a long-running power struggle between North Carolina's legislature and its governors.

State lawmakers attempted a similar overhaul in 2016, in a lame-duck session after Cooper won the governor's race. The state Supreme Court, then dominated by Democrats, ruled that the changes violated the separation of powers in the state constitution and threw them out.

In 2018, GOP lawmakers proposed a constitutional amendment to give themselves power to oversee elections, but the voters rejected it by a 2-1 margin.