North Carolina trial-court judges refused Friday to delay state legislative elections in and around Raleigh next month while litigation challenging several House districts continues.
A three-judge panel declined to halt the May 8 primary for at least four Wake County House races because voting is already happening. The decision also likely preserves the use of those and surrounding Wake districts in the November general election. General Assembly boundaries have been redrawn since last summer by Republican legislators and federal courts, the result of other lawsuits…
In their order, the Superior Court judges gave the plaintiffs hope they would be ultimately be successful, writing they “have demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits of their claims.”
But their request for a preliminary injunction was denied because if granted it would halt ongoing House races “and more importantly, would interrupt voting by citizens already underway,” according to the order by Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway, Joseph Crosswhite and Alma Hinton. Mail-in absentee voting for the primary began last month, and in-person absentee voting starts next week.
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