CNN —A bipartisan panel of judges in North Carolina has ruled that the Republican-controlled state legislature improperly tried to seize control of state and local election boards from Democratic Gov. The state Board of Elections, for instance, currently has three Democrats and two Republicans. Previous efforts by Republicans in the General Assembly to change the makeup of election boards have been rejected by the courts, and by voters in a 2018 referendum. Republican state lawmakers who pushed the change had argued that it would bring bipartisan balance to decision-making around elections. Several lawmakers had accused state election officials of reaching a “collusive settlement” with Democratic litigants to extend the deadline to count absentee ballots during the 2020 election.

---

Persons: Roy Cooper –, North Carolina’s, –, Cooper, “ infringes, ”, ” Lauren Horsch, Sen, Phil Berger, What’s, Paul Newton, you’ve, Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s Organizations: CNN, Republican, Democratic Gov, Republicans, State, North, North Carolina General, Assembly, North Carolina Senate, ” Locations: North Carolina, ”, Carolina