NC appeals court upholds election powers transfer to auditor

Court upholds lawmakers’ action

The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that lawmakers did not violate the state constitution by transferring authority over appointments to the state’s elections board to the state auditor. The ruling allows that transfer to stand and rejects the constitutional claim against the change. It preserves the General Assembly’s decision to place the appointment power with the auditor rather than undoing that action on state constitutional grounds.

The decision concerns control over who makes elections board appointments. It does not appoint any board member, resolve a candidate’s eligibility or determine the result of an election. Its immediate significance is institutional: the state auditor retains the appointment authority assigned by lawmakers. No candidate or election is directly tied to the case.

Scope and next steps

The court’s ruling addresses whether the legislature’s transfer of appointment authority violates the North Carolina Constitution. By answering that question in the negative, the Court of Appeals upheld the legal structure lawmakers enacted. The decision therefore keeps the appointment system in place unless it is changed through a later court action or another lawful state action.

The next procedural question is whether any party asks for further review. Any such request would determine whether another court is asked to examine the constitutional issue. Separately, future appointments under the law will show how the transferred authority is used, but this ruling itself concerns the legality of the transfer rather than the choices made through that authority.