Weekly Wrap: Saga of NC ballots becoming soap opera

The soap opera of North Carolina's elections continues, specifically what will and won't be on the ballot in November.

After a three-judge panel agreed last week with Gov. Roy Cooper that two proposed constitutional amendments were vague and misleading, the General Assembly returned to Raleigh to change the wording of the proposals. The amendments would shift power from the governor to lawmakers to appoint people to the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement and to vacant judgeships.

Cooper wasn't impressed by the new language, saying it was still misleading, and he returned to court to try to block the amendments from going on the ballot.

Supreme Court candidate Chris Anglin won his fight to be designated on the ballot as a Republican. Lawmakers had passed legislation that would have kept the "R" off the ballot next to Anglin's name because the former Democrat hadn't been a registered Republican long enough, but a judge said the rules couldn't be changed in the middle of the election, and lawmakers gave up their appeal.

Meanwhile, a federal court said the state's congressional district map is unconstitutional because it is overly partisan, and the judges suggested redrawing the districts this fall and having congressional primaries this fall and a general election by early January. The U.S. Supreme Court had kicked the case back to a lower court in June, following a decision in a similar partisan gerrymandering case from Wisconsin.

All this has combined to put elections officials in a bind because they need to get ballots finalized by Sept. 22 and haven't even been able to start printing them yet.

Outside of the courthouse this week, lawmakers took the Cooper Administration to task over its handling of Hurricane Matthew recovery efforts and a special fund linked to the planned Atlantic Coast Pipeline.