RALEIGH -- The state legislature famously runs on its own time.
But last week's hastily called 12:45 a.m. session set a record: It was the first time in modern history that lawmakers started a different session after midnight.
The maneuver, which allowed House Republicans to override the governor's veto and notch a political win over the state's teacher's lobby, was immediately denounced for its lack of transparency. The teachers' group called it unconstitutional and filed a lawsuit.
Top Republicans defended their actions, saying the procedure to hold the session was legitimate. State Rep. Nelson Dollar of Cary said "sessions that clock in at 12:01 at night are not unusual in the General Assembly at all," and many Republicans compared it to Democrats maneuvering on the state lottery in 2005.
The facts, however, show a slightly different picture.
Not only are new sessions after midnight unprecedented, but since 2001 state lawmakers took less than 1 percent of their votes after midnight, according to a News & Observer study of legislative action in the General Assembly.
And while plenty of late-night negotiating surrounded the lottery, all the votes on the bill occurred in the daylight hours, coming between 1 and 2 p.m. The analysis showed most votes were held in the middle of the day - 45 percent of the legislative action since 2001 took place between 2 and 5 p.m.
The N&O analysis examined 19,207 votes registered by House and Senate clerks, identifying 170 after midnight. The data accounted for all roll call votes, but it didn't include voice votes or other action without a recorded tally.
The rare votes in the middle of the night likely bolster complaints from Democratic lawmakers and open government advocates about transparency. Only three times since 2001 has the legislature voted on gubernatorial vetoes after midnight - and all came in the current term under House Speaker Thom Tillis with the latest being last week's bill to cut off direct deposit of teachers dues to the N.C. Association of Educators.
"It has always been bad practice. Good things are not done at midnight," state Rep. Rick Glazier, a Fayetteville Democrat, said. Tillis did not return calls for comment.
But the Democrats are not immune to criticism about early morning votes. The 2005-2006 session run by House Speaker Jim Black and Senate leader Marc Basnight, both Democrats, accounted for 44 percent of the total votes taken in the early morning hours - the most of any session. And when Black split power in the 2003-2004 session with Republican Richard Morgan, the House and Senate held four dozen votes after midnight, the second most for any session. Many of the early morning votes came in sessions that stretched until breakfast. In 2005, the Senate held two votes at 6:21 and 6:23 a.m. - the latest votes for any overnight session - on preventing methamphetamine labs and on legislative studies.
House clerk Denise Weeks started working at the legislature in 1977 and began her current job in 1993. Weeks had seen it all - "well, I thought I had," she clarified, saying last week's session proved otherwise.
"I recall many of these," Weeks said. "I have been here for 24 hours before."
Part of the midnight action is attributed to legislative rules. Each bill gets a vote on second and third readings. House and Senate rules don't allow the votes on the same day without a rules waiver. When it comes to legislation that creates or raises taxes, the state constitution requires the two votes on different days.
12:01 a.m. votes
To expedite the process, the chambers often schedule votes for 12:01 a.m. - the first minute of a new day. "It is sometimes unavoidable on the last day of session," said Glazier, a 10-year veteran.
The current House rules actually prohibit sessions after 10 p.m. on Mondays and after 9 p.m. other days. The rules, however, allow them to continue with a majority vote.
The House rules don't set time parameters on when the chamber can convene a session, meaning the midnight session was allowed. The Senate has no time restrictions.
Rep. Harold Brubaker, a former speaker, put the limits into the House rules in 1995 to return "civility" to the process.
One caveat with the N&O analysis: It does not account for "legislative time." The term comes from a now-defunct practice of "stopping the clock" to squeeze in votes before a deadline or the end of a session. For instance, in June 2005, the House stopped the clock at 8:59 a.m. to consider budget amendments, Weeks said. The next entry is at 12:20 a.m.
State Sen. Martin Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat first elected in 1979, called the clockwork a "tradition" and not surreptitious. "You will find times where nothing bad was being done and no one was complaining," Nesbitt said, carefully drawing a distinction with last week's impromptu midnight session. "This thing the other night went far, far beyond that."
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