North State Journal: “The North Carolina Supreme Court ordered all of the state’s scheduled March 8 primaries to move to May 17, 2022, last week. The delay will allow an evidentiary hearing to be held by a three-judge panel on the multiple lawsuits filed in connection with the state redistricting maps.
The order — which followed action earlier in the week from the N.C. Court of Appeals that first delayed filing in races for U.S. House of Representatives, N.C. Senate and N.C. House of Representatives — requires the three-judge panel in Wake County Superior Court to rule on the cases by Jan. 11, 2022.
Notably, the order moved all of the scheduled primaries to May, not just those conducted under new districts following the General Assembly’s redistricting session last month.
Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell), a co-chair of the Senate Elections Committee, said in response to the court’s order, “The court didn’t even articulate a legal or factual basis for suspending elections. The Democrats on the Supreme Court want districts that elect more Democrats, so they’re blocking every election in the state until they get their way.”
House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain) said, “To throw this process into chaos in the middle of filing leaves North Carolinians with uncertainty ahead of the election. Despite this delay, we are confident that we will prevail at trial and our maps will stand.”
The state’s top elected Democrats — Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein — were pleased with the outcome.”