North Carolina: Education superintendent race finally over
The Charlotte Observer reports: June Atkinson, a Democrat, was sworn in as the superintendent of public instruction Tuesday after a 10-month court and political battle with Republican Bill Fletcher. ...
Settling the race required the legislature to act for the first time since 1835. The House and Senate met in a joint session and voted 93-21 in support of Atkinson. ...
Atkinson, an education administrator who taught for four years at Charlotte's Myers Park High School, was credited with the most votes in a close race last November.
But Fletcher argued thousands of those votes were cast illegally. Other votes were lost by faulty voting machines, he argued. The state, Fletcher said, should have held another election.
The Republican-led N.C. Supreme Court agreed with Fletcher that voters cast about 11,000 ballots in precincts other than their own and those votes were illegal.
The court ruling led to a conflict over the state constitution. The state House and Senate -- led by Democrats -- said courts have no place in deciding statewide races. The N.C. Constitution gives that power to the legislature, they said. -- Charlotte Observer | 08/24/2005 | Legislators elect superintendent