The state primary should be held May 8 as scheduled, a three-judge panel ruled Friday after a hearing in a lawsuit challenging new legislative and congressional voting districts.
The unanimous ruling denying the request to push the primary to July 10 was a blow to registered Democrats and advocacy groups who proposed the change so the courts could consider their challenge to Republican-drawn districts. The judges' decision increases the likelihood that the new districts approved by the legislature will be used in this year's elections.
A delay could have had an immediate impact on candidates and campaigns. Candidate filing is scheduled to begin Feb. 13 at noon.
"All the confusion is gone," said Sen. Bob Rucho, a Mecklenburg County Republican who helped shepherd the redistricting plans though the legislature. "There is no uncertainty."
Lawyers for the challengers did not say immediately whether they would appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
The new district maps would be used through the 2020 elections and would give Republicans a chance to extend their legislative majority and win more of the state's 13 congressional seats.
Challengers, who want the legislature's plans thrown out and new maps drawn, asked the Superior Court judges hearing their complaints to postpone the candidate filing period and push the primary to July 10. They argued that the map-drawers unconstitutionally divided voters into black and white districts. The maps divide an unprecedented number of voting precincts, they argued. Black voters and white voters are not treated the same, they said, because black voters are more likely to live in split precincts.
Split precincts make elections more complicated and lead to voter confusion, they said.
Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina, one of the challengers, said he wants to appeal.
"Let's not go through an election where you admit there are going to be a bunch of problems," he said.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway said there was no guarantee, even with a July primary, that new maps would be ready if challengers won in court. The delayed schedule did not take into account a likely state Supreme Court appeal, time for the legislature to redraw the maps if the justices decided they were unconstitutional, or time for the U.S. Department of Justice to approve new plans for use. "The Court is not persuaded that a delay of the primaries of these three races, even of 45 days or so as proposed by the plaintiffs, will have any meaningful practical value or materially aid in protecting the rights asserted by the plaintiffs during the course of this litigation," Ridge way said.
The challengers have raised serious issues that should be considered, Ridgeway said. "It would be incorrect to interpret this ruling as implying a lack of merit to plaintiffs' challenge of the plans," the judges said in their written order.
The judges have not yet decided whether parts or all of the challengers' lawsuit should be dismissed. They heard arguments on that request last week.
In arguing for the legislature's plans, Alexander Peters, a special deputy attorney general, said some of the alternatives supported by opponents didn't treat black voters much differently than the legislature's maps do.
