A shift in political control of North Carolina's elections administration can remain in place, the state Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday, in a major win for Republicans as the 2026 midterm approach.

The 2-1 ruling divided the court's three-judge panel along party lines, with Republicans in favor and the lone Democrat writing a dissent.  It's possible it could still be appealed to the state Supreme Court, where Republicans also hold a majority.

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For more than 100 years, elections have been controlled by the governor in North Carolina. Republican state lawmakers tried multiple times to seize power for themselves under former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, but those efforts were shot down in court as unconstitutional and then, later, at the ballot box when voters in 2018 rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to let the changes happen.

The legislature tried again in late 2024, passing yet another law stripping elections power from the governor just days after Democratic Gov. Josh Stein defeated Republican challenger Mark Robinson for the office. The new law shifted the power not to Republican lawmakers but to a Republican executive branch official, State Auditor Dave Boliek, who had also just won election days prior.

Cooper sued, calling the law unconstitutional. Stein has continued that lawsuit since taking office. He won at trial, with a Wake County Superior Court agreeing this latest attempt to strip the governor's power over elections was unconstitutional just like the previous efforts also were.

But earlier this year a Republican panel on the Court of Appeals allowed the shift to go into place anyway, despite not issuing a ruling on the merits of the case. Wednesday's ruling dealt with the merits. The court's majority concluded that while it was a power grab with apparent political motivations, it was an acceptable one that didn't violate the state constitution's separation of powers clause since it kept the power within the executive branch, even if not with the governor.

A spokesperson for Stein didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the loss. Boliek, meanwhile, took to social media to celebrate his victory.

"We will continue to uphold the election duties prescribed to our office," Boliek wrote. "Our goal remains to ensure elections in North Carolina are run impartially, effectively, and securely, and that all eligible voters have access to the voting booth."

Ruling and dissent

In Wednesday's ruling, the judges also wrote that the legislature could always reassign the duties back to the governor, or to any other executive branch official, for political reasons. It's not the job of courts to weigh in on political decisions like that, the judges wrote.

"We are not ignorant to the fact that our current Governor and Auditor are members of opposing political parties and may have opposing policy preferences," the ruling says. "Further, we note that this policy decision by the General Assembly to reassign the duties at issue leaves open the possibility for future reassignment of these duties back to the Governor or to another Council of State member as the political makeup of the General Assembly changes."

The judges added that they expected the elections board itself to try to operate in an apolitical fashion regardless, which gave them more comfort in allowing the board to be the target of political wrangling.

"For elections to be free and fair, election administration must be structured apolitically and those individuals charged with the duty to conduct elections shall not be given the power to influence the people to vote for their preferred candidate," the ruling said. "The role of an election official is to ensure that every eligible voter has an equal opportunity to vote and that every lawful vote is counted accurately."

The majority was made up of Republican judges April Wood and Valerie Zachary, whose husband Lee Zachary is a former Republican member of the state legislature.

The dissent was written by Democratic Justice John Arrowood.

He said it doesn't require a complicated legal analysis to see that it's unconstitutional to strip this power away from the governor.

"By the plain text of our Constitution, only the Governor is charged with taking care that the law be faithfully executed," Arrowood wrote, adding that because of that, "our Supreme Court has recognized that the Governor must have 'enough control' over agencies that 'are primarily administrative or executive in character'" such as the elections board.

He also laid into his Republican colleagues at the Court of Appeals for allowing the shift in power to go into place months ago, long before this ruling was issued or any arguments had been heard.

It sets a dangerous precedent to essentially overturn trial court rulings without allowing any consideration of the arguments or or against doing so, he wrote: "I am concerned that continued application in this manner would see other lower courts ignored while appeals are effectively decided during their pendency, or the normalization of deciding extraordinary writs with no reasoning."

Finally, Arrowood said, it's nonsensical to think the elections board will act in an apolitical manner like the majority said in explaining its ruling.

He pointed to multiple recent decisions the Republican-led board has made that appear aimed at reducing voting opportunities for young people and for Black people, two groups who tend to support Democrats. The elections board is now led by Sam Hayes, a former top lawyer for Republican state lawmakers, and earlier this year Boliek hired Dallas Woodhouse, a former executive director of the state Republican Party, to help counties implement those early voting plans that appear to target Democratic-leaning voters, Arrowood wrote.

"None of these actions appear designed to promote boards of elections free from political influence or interference," Arrowood wrote in his dissent.

Hayes disputed Arrowood's interpretation of the board's recent actions on early voting rules, telling WRAL in a written statement that "regardless of where the independent State Board of Elections is administratively housed, our mission remains the same — to serve all voters of this state regardless of party."

Hayes added: "Our focus remains on successfully administering elections in North Carolina. Regardless of my political affiliation, as Executive Director of the State Board of Elections, I have always endeavored to follow the letter and the spirt of the law with every decision, and I intend to do so going forward."