Asheville –
A quick recap:
1. Gov Cooper posts veto #66
Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed a bill that would have set Election Day as the deadline for mail-in absentee ballots in future N.C. elections. Cooper’s rejection of Senate Bill 326 marks his 13th veto this year and his record-extending 66th veto since taking office in 2017. ”The legislature ironically named this bill ‘The Election Day Integrity Act’ when it actually does the opposite,” Cooper said in a prepared statement. “Election integrity means counting every legal vote, but this bill virtually guarantees that some will go uncounted.”
Current law requires election officials to accept absentee ballots that arrive by mail up to three days after Election Day. S.B. 326 would have restored the absentee ballot deadline North Carolina used before 2009. The change would have returned North Carolina to the majority of states — now 32 — that accept absentee ballots only through Election Day. During the 2020 election, state election officials accepted absentee ballots arriving as many as nine days after Election Day.
2. Hudson will not seek re-election to N.C. Supreme Court
The N.C. Supreme Court’s senior associate justice, Robin Hudson, will not seek re-election next year. Hudson announced Thursday that she will not run for another term. Hudson, 69, would have reached the mandatory retirement age of 72 in February 2024, little more than one year into an eight-year term on the bench. “It doesn’t make sense to spend more than a year running in order to serve only 13 months of a new term,” Hudson said in a news release. “It also wouldn’t be fair to my family, my colleagues, and supporters to raise money and campaign under these circumstances. I would much prefer to spend my time devoted to the work of the court, without the distraction that a re-election effort requires.”
Hudson is a registered Democrat. After six years as a judge on the N.C. Court of Appeals, she was first elected to the Supreme Court in 2006. Hudson won re-election in 2014. Both elections took place when N.C. voters selected Supreme Court justices in officially nonpartisan races. Party labels returned to Supreme Court races in 2018. With 15 years of service on the state’s highest court, Hudson is the senior associate justice. Among her colleagues, only Chief Justice Paul Newby has served longer.
3. Waukesha Christmas parade attack suspect Darrell Brooks complains about being ‘demonized’ in jail.
The man accused of killing six people and injuring dozens more with his SUV during a rampage at a Wisconsin Christmas parade feels “dehumanized” behind bars. Darrell Brooks gave his first interview since last Sunday’s ghastly attack Wednesday inside the Waukesha County Jail. “I just feel like I’m being a monster — demonized,” Brooks, 39, said during a video chat at the jail, according to Fox. The accused killer — a career criminal and registered child sex offender — calmly answered questions but offered no insight as to why he allegedly mowed down the crowd, according to the article.