News

Court blocks candidate filing for legislative and congressional seats

By Lightning Reports, Published: December 6, 2021

Twenty-one minutes before qualifying was to open, county elections directors across North Carolina received word that the state Court of Appeals on Monday blocked candidates from filing for election to the state Legislature or Congress.

The order granted a motion by plaintiffs seeking to block maps adopted by the Legislature for state House and Senate seats and the state's 14 congressional districts as part of the redistricting process. The appeals court order suspends filing until at least noon Thursday, the deadline for defendants to file a respond to the lawsuit brought by the N.C. League of Conservation Voters and others.

As a result of the order, Henderson County Board of Elections officials turned away the first two candidates who came to elections headquarters to file, including Chelsea Walsh, the former Henderson County Republican Party chair, who plans to run for the House District 114 currently held by Tim Moffitt, and Dennis Justice, who has run for office many times in the past. Justice said he plans to file for a seat in the General Assembly, but refused to say whether he planned to file for the House District 114 or for Senate District 48.