On December 14, the North Carolina legislature convened in a special election, and passed SB 4. Here is the text. It converts elections for State Supreme Court Justice from non-partisan to partisan. North Carolina had always had partisan elections for that office until 2003, when it switched them to non-partisan elections.

In the 2016 election, a Democrat defeated a Republican in the non-partisan election. The legislature has a Republican majority. The Republicans seem to believe that if the 2016 election had been partisan, the Republican would have won. Generally academics and good government advocates oppose partisan elections for judicial elections.

SB 4 also ends the old system in which the party that held the Governorship was able to hold a majority on the State Election Board and county election boards. The new system says the two parties with the most registered voters will have an equal number of seats on all the boards. In both the old system and the new system, it was impossible for anyone to ever serve on an election board unless that person was a registered Democrat or registered Republican. However, at least the new system makes it impossible for one party to have unrestricted power over decisions made by the boards. Some opponents of SB 4 believe that the special session was improper, and there will probably be court challenges.

SB 4 was signed into law on December 16, only two days after the special session had convened. The special session is now adjourned and the 2017 session will open on January 11.