By a 75-44 margin, on Tuesday morning the House voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 68, a bill merging the State Board of Elections, the State Ethics Commission, and various lobbying oversight regulations.
The Senate passed its override measure Monday evening.
Cooper claimed that the changes in S.B. 68 violated the separation-of-powers principle in the N.C. Constitution. It’s possible the governor will challenge the new law in court.
“Gov. Cooper vetoed Senate Bill 68 so he could wield political influence over elections and ethics investigations in North Carolina, but the House has preserved fair and consistent enforcement of campaign finance and lobbying laws by a bipartisan board the governor will appoint,” said House Rules Chairman David Lewis, R-Harnett, in a statement issued after the vote.
After the House vote, legislative leaders filed a motion with the three-judge panel that struck down the earlier version of the law, according to a release from the office of Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham. They filed another motion with the state Court of Appeals asking it to affirm that the new law complies with their order, and to dismiss the governor’s case.