Weekly Wrap: Belated Christmas gift

Lawmakers came back into session on Thursday to override two more of Gov. Roy Cooper's vetoes. One bill returns the state elections board to the same structure and responsibilities it had in 2016 – before lawmakers started tinkering with it – while the other was the grab-bag "technical corrections" bill.

Although praised the reset on the elections board, he opposed one section of the bill that would make investigations of alleged campaign finance violations confidential and place other limits on them. He opposed the technical corrections bills because of provisions on municipal-operated charter schools and stormwater regulations.

Republican lawmakers wielded their super-majority power in the House and the Senate one final time to override both – the 22nd and 23rd veto overrides since Cooper took office two years ago.

A three-judge panel threw a wrench in the works shortly after lawmakers left town, refusing to stay their ruling for a fourth time that the current structure of the elections board is unconstitutional. The revamped structure under the new law doesn't take effect until Jan. 31 – lawmakers wanted to give the existing board time to finish the investigation into possible election fraud in the 9th Congressional District race – so the state would have to be without an elections board for a month.

Cooper suggested appointing five members of the current board to an interim board for the next month, but state GOP leaders wanted none of that. Instead, they called for declaring Republican Mark Harris the winner of the 9th District race for now so he could be seated when Congress convenes on Jan. 3 and then finishing the investigation later.