With the announcement from Census Bureau that detailed census data for redistricting won’t be available til Sept 30, too late for election process for 45 cities with districts, this thread is a quick look at statutory remedies in GS 160A-23.1 https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_160a/GS_160a-23.1.html /1 #ncpol

GS 160A-23.1 was enacted in 1990 to allow municipal elections to be pushed back to 1992 when it appeared 1990 census would be delayed til after 1991 municipal filing. It turned out the delay didn’t happen. Image is what I wrote in uncodified law in 1990 https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/SessionLaws/HTML/1989-1990/SL1989-1012.html /2

It turned out that several cities DID use the law in 1991, 2001 and maybe 2011 to delay their elections when they couldn’t get municipal districting plans pre-cleared under VRA Section 5 /3 #ncpol

Here’s the whole uncodified findings of fact in the 1990 law (it’s the law, but you can’t find it in the statute books) to give some historical perspective on census related NC municipal election delays. It’s been 31 years since I wrote it. /4 #ncpol

And here’s the full current law on municipal election delays. Note the exact delay depends on which of 4 election systems the particular city uses, and puts them concurrent with 2022 primary and election dates. /5 #ncpol

Another piece to the moving puzzle is that while the 2022 primary is currently scheduled for March 8 with filing in December, past history shows a lot of primaries delayed due to redistricting. /6 #ncpol