No special session: Governor wanted lawmakers to call session to redraw districts

Gov. Roy Cooper wanted members of the North Carolina General Assembly to convene immediately in a special session in order to redraw the election maps for state House and Senate districts.

The legislature is already in regular session, but Cooper said the special session could run concurrently with the regular session.

The Supreme Court this week upheld a lower court ruling throwing out 28 legislative districts. That lower court could decide special elections should be held this fall, using new boundaries.

Cooper said that the maps need to be drawn as rapidly as possible and urged legislators to convene in special session to do so. He is in a big hurry to get the district boundary lines redrawn. A Democrat, he hopes to reduce some of the Republican-dominated legislature's hold on state government. He called for the special session on Wednesday.

But Republicans didn't see the need to jump so quickly following the high court's ruling. We didn't either, and are glad they refused the governor's demand.

Published in Editorials on June 8, 2017 11:10 PM