It's 5.05 and welcome in to a Friday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. We have got some pretty big news this morning out of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
However, it's not actually a case that we've been following. It's not a legal update.
Some pretty big political news Thursday in North Carolina as Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger Jr. has announced that he will not be seeking re-election. That's important to note that that election isn't until 2028. Putting that post out early on Thursday morning to social media to walk through some of the details on this, what we know right now and what this could mean going forward. It's my pleasure to welcome Mitch Coke from the John Locke Foundation to our airwaves here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Mitch, we are not even at the 2026 midterm elections yet. Already got candidates coming out and saying, hey, I'm not running for reelection in 2028. What gives?
Well, it's definitely interesting timing. One would expect normally that if you're going to have an announcement like this, it would take place after the next election.
So after the November election this year, you might expect to see something like that.
So having this announcement in early September is a little bit of a head scratcher. It's also interesting to note what is said and what is not said, because I think there's already been a little bit of overreaction to what was not said and not just reaction to what was said. He's not going to seek re-election to his current seat, which is Associate Justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court, an eight-year term. He won his term in 2000. It's in the sixth year.
He's got two more years on his term. He's going to serve the rest of his term, he says. And so there's not a fear at this point that he would leave and there would be a replacement and you'd have to deal with that.
So he says he is going to serve out the term. He also. doesn't uh say that he's not going to run for anything else and of course there is a big prize that is likely to be open in 2028 on the same court chief justice our current chief justice paul newbie is in his early 70s by the time that this election takes place in 2028 he will be 73.
now that's still short of mandatory retirement age which in north carolina is 76 but if newbie were to run for another term, another eight-year term as Chief Justice, he would only end up being able to serve about three years before he would have to retire and five years of that term. Would have to be covered elsewhere.
So there is a potential that Chief Justice Newby announces at some point that he's not going to run for reelection himself, that he will retire at the end of 2028. And then you would see jockeying potentially to be the next Chief Justice. And it's entirely possible that Phil Berger Jr., in not running for associate justice, Will line up a campaign committee and try to get endorsements to run for Chief Justice. He doesn't say he's going to do that, but he also doesn't say that he's not going to do that. He basically leaves the door open to other options.
Now, another thing to keep in mind is that we haven't heard any details about any names that have been floated around, but North Carolina also has three district court judge openings in federal court because of three current judges on the court taking senior status, which is a form of semi-retirement.
Sometimes it's a full retirement, sometimes it's just a reduced caseload. But once a judge who has one of these lifetime appointments decides to take senior status, that does open up the possibility for a new judge to be appointed. And there are three of those right now. In North Carolina, Phil Berger Jr. potentially could be nominated to fill one of those seats.
So I think the key thing to keep in mind right now is the only thing we really know is that Phil Berger Jr.'s name will not be on the ballot for associate justice in 2028, but there are still a lot of other options out there for him. Yeah, and we'll continue to discuss the possibility of some of those other options. But, Mitch, let's flash forward to that 2028 year, which will, of course, be a presidential election. Donald Trump will not be on the ballot as he will have finished serving his second consecutive term in Washington, D.C. There are three judges that will be on up for re-election, as you already mentioned.
Chief Justice Paul Newby, remains unclear whether or not he will run for re-election. Phil Berger's seat, which we know now he is not going to be running for. And Justice Tama Barringer, also up. Those are three Republican seats up on a seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court. We've seen a lot of the political jockeying over the last couple of years.
Democrats are likely to throw everything in their toolbox at trying to take down a couple of those seats that are currently held by Republicans and potentially gain a majority on the court. That's exactly right. People who have been following this relatively closely will remember that in 2020, the Republicans swept the seats.
Now, because those are eight-year terms, these are the seats that are going to be up in 2028. At that time, Democrats had a 6-1 majority.
So when Republicans swept, they were still in the minority. And it wasn't until they got the election of 2022 that Republicans took the majority on the state Supreme Court. Basically, they've been on offense and Democrats on defense for the last couple of election cycles when it comes to the state Supreme Court. But in 2028 and then again in 2030, Democrats will be on full offense mode, Republicans in defensive mode, because all of the seats that are currently up for grabs in both 2028 and 2030 are seats held by Republicans.
So it's going to be very interesting to see what happens. We know now that Phil Bird Jr. has said he's not going to run. There's going to be at least one open seat on the state Supreme Court. It could be that it'll only be one if Chief Justice Newby decides to retire and Berger, Phil Berger Jr.
runs for his seat. He would have Berger and Beringer running, and then there would be one other Republican. All three of the Democratic candidates will be new people trying to seek the seat, but it'll be very interesting to watch. And I think. The discussions are probably already taking place about who the candidates are likely to be in 2028.
But this announcement from Phil Berger Jr. revs up that conversation quite a bit because Republicans know that there is at least one person who they will need to line up to be a candidate in 2028. And my guess is they're already starting to think about who the best person for that job would be.
Well, and Mitch, that's incredibly relevant for those that maybe are new to the state of North Carolina, haven't voted in one of these elections before for Supreme Court. This is a statewide election. It's not an inherently political office like we see with the U.S. Senate or a member of Congress or the North Carolina General Assembly. You're talking about electing judges to races or positions like the North Carolina Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals.
North Carolina, for those that haven't had the pleasure, is a very long state from Tennessee all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, building up your name ID as a running for one of these high-stakes court positions. You don't do that in the span of just six months. It could easily take a couple of years to get around the state, build up some of that name ID, and of course, get those political dollars that are out there to run a successful general election campaign. That's right. And I think that we already would have expected to see some sort of campaigning being done after the November election, because that would be normally when people would start to at least begin to think about the next election cycle.
And so knowing that there would be a strong likelihood of at least one seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court becoming open in 2028, people would start thinking about, okay, who are the best candidates? Who's going to line up support? What's going to be your campaign strategy? How will that affect a current job? Because if someone is sitting on the Court of Appeals and wants to run for the state Supreme Court, which has happened quite a few times, they're limited in...
And how much they could do that if they remain on the Court of Appeals, because there's not a whole lot you can say on the campaign trail. Plus, you're sitting as a current judge on the Court of Appeals, and we'll have all of that work there. But now these conversations ramp up a little bit earlier than they might have otherwise, thanks to this announcement from Phil Berger Jr. I think to me, one of the most interesting pieces of this announcement is that we didn't get. The announcement of, okay, what happens next?
Yeah. I think that has led a lot of people to think, oh, Phil Berger Jr. is now just gone. He's done. Maybe this is the end of the Phil Berger.
Political dynasty in North Carolina because his father, Phil Berger Sr., lost his race to stay in the state senate.
Now, Phil Berger Jr. is deciding not to run, so maybe this ends the Berger brand. I we don't actually get that news. The only news is that Phil Berger Jr. is not going to run for his current job.
I think he probably would have Helped avoid a lot of speculation, had he said at least something about what happens next. If he's running for Chief Justice, One of the reasons why you might not say that right now is because Chief Justice Newby hasn't said anything yet about his new plan.
So it would be kind of jumping the gun. If Chief Justice Newby hasn't announced anything and then eventually says, Oh, I am going to run, even though I can only serve three years, or run and hope that the General Assembly raises the mandatory retirement limit, which it has already done once, largely to benefit Chief Justice Newby. The old mandatory retirement age had been 72. It was raised to 76, and a lot of the discussion at the time was that was to enable. Chief Justice Newby to serve out the full current term that he has now.
So my guess is that's probably one reason if the plan is to run for Chief Justice why you wouldn't announce it now. And if the thought was perhaps you're going to get appointed to one of these U.S. district judge seats, you don't want to put the cart before the horse and say, well, I'm probably going to get nominated and then have the Trump administration say, well, you know, forget that.
Now that you've already said it, we're going to look elsewhere.
So he's probably trying to be careful in what he does. But it is interesting that this announcement is coming out in early September. rather than after the November election. Yeah, reading directly from his statement, and this is what I think has a lot of people wondering what's next. I am not prepared to say more at this time, except that my commitment to North Carolina and the law does not end with this term, which very much, Mitch, I think opens that door that there will be something else in the future for the current associate member of the North Carolina Supreme Court in Phil Berger Jr.
We will watch as this plays out over the next couple of years, potentially not immediately clear if there will be another announcement and when exactly that would take place. Nevertheless, we'll be keeping an eye on those details over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. A big part of parenting today is figuring out which technology will help your kid and which might hurt them.
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It's 5:23. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM. WBT, here's some pretty cool news. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that is also known as NOAA, is set to use $64 million in federal disaster funding to rebuild its historic Beaufort Laboratory after hurricane-related structural damage forced the facility to close permanently for safety reasons and concerns. The project will be funded through the 2025 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, with design and pre-construction work expected to begin pretty shortly, coming up in early 2027.
The new laboratory on Pivers Island will be built above the floodplain and designed to withstand future storms and flooding. Here's the cool story about it, or the cool part about it, I should say: the Beaufort Laboratory. was established back in 1899 and moved to the island in 1902. It is the nation's second oldest federal marine science laboratory and predates the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by more than 70 years. The main laboratory building being replaced was 62 years old and housed most of the laboratory space on the campus, along with offices for about half of the lab's staff.
The building was permanently closed in 2024 after routine inspections identified foundational damage that made continued occupancy of that facility unsafe. Representative Greg Murphy, whose third congressional district includes the area where this is in Beaufort County, said that he had advocated for the reconstruction of the facility since it was damaged. With Murphy telling Carolina Journal, I'm glad to see NOAA moving forward with plans to rebuild its laboratory in Beaufort, which supports our coastal communities. This historic facility has served our region well for over 100 years by conducting vital research. With Murphy saying that he was, quote, proud to have helped advocate for the reconstruction of the facility since it was damaged and welcomed the $64 million investment.
He followed up by saying, I look forward to supporting the valuable work that the laboratory does for years to come. The lab itself has served as a federal marine research hub for more than a century. Work conducted in the lab include researching and forecasting harmful algae blooms using Systems for underwater habitat mapping and coral reconstruction, supporting South Atlantic fisheries management, and studying natural infrastructure used for coastal protection. The campus also houses staff from NOAA's National Oceanic Services and National Marine Fisheries Services, as well as the North Carolina Coastal Reserve, with the National Estuary Research Reserve also operating in portions of that facility as well. The reserve is managed through a partnership between NOAA and the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management.
NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs said that the location gives researchers access to coastal ecosystems, the Gulf Stream, and one of the country's largest estuaries. Jacobs said in a press release alongside this announcement: for more than a century, the dedicated experts at NOAA's Beaufort Laboratory have produced world-class science that supports our economy, advances national priorities, and enhances coastal resilience. The state-of-the-art facility located within the country's second largest estuary and adjacent to the Gulf Stream will enable NOAA to continue its groundbreaking research while strengthening collaboration with industry and academic partners. For local officials, the decision also provides certainty that the federal research institution will remain part of the community with the Beaufort mayor in Sharon Harker saying that the laboratory has become closely tied to the town and Carteret County through its research, jobs, and work involving coastal resources. With the mayor telling Carolina Journal, NOAA's decision to rebuild its laboratory is tremendously important to Beaufort and Carteret counties.
The Beaufort Laboratory is part of our community's identity and has long supported marine science, skilled jobs, and the stewardship of our coastal resources. Yeah. Harker described the project as a commitment extending beyond the construction of just the building itself, saying in part, this federal investment represents more than a new facility. It is a long-term commitment to NOAA's research presence in eastern North Carolina. We are grateful that this historic institution will remain in Beaufort and continue serving our coast for generations to come.
Research operations have continued despite the closure of the main laboratory building. NOAA has renovated other buildings on the island campus to accommodate the vast majority of the display staff, including adding temporary laboratory and office space. A new greenhouse for marine organism research, staging spaces for autonomous underwater vehicles and drones, and an updated dive locker for scuba equipment all will be part of this program. Those temporary changes will remain important as the larger reconstruction moves forward. As NOAA said, the design and pre-construction work on the replacement laboratory is expected to begin in early 2027.
This is great news for the coastal economy in northeastern North Carolina. As mentioned at the opening, this facility was established in some fashion or form back in 1899. Great to see NOAA and the federal government investing some $64 million to get that rebuilt. We will watch the progress as we head into 2027. You can read more coverage of this over on our website this morning.
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Sign up today at brilliant.org/slash tutor and get 20% off for back to school. That's brilliant.org slash tutor. Mm-hmm. It's 5:37. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM.
WBT, I'm Nick Craig. A good Friday morning to you.
Well, starting today, September the 4th, absentee ballots are going to begin the process of being mailed out across the state of North Carolina to walk us through what an absentee ballot is, who is eligible for it, what does this process look like? It's my pleasure to welcome Dr. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation to our airwaves this morning on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Andy, as I understand it, North Carolina has got one of the most lengthy or the lengthiest absentee by mail period in the United States. We are still at this point nearly two full months away from Election Day, and folks probably middle or later parts of next week due to the Labor Day holiday will have ballots in their mailboxes and can start returning those pretty quickly.
Yeah, well, it's 60 days out. The next state is not, is, I think, 43 days out, Wisconsin.
So, our North Carolina starts distributing its regular mail absentee ballots well before any other state.
Now, all states are required to send military and overseas ballots at least 45 days out. North Carolina will also send those out 60 days, so well ahead of the requirement by federal law. And so, we have this really elongated absentee by mail period compared to really any other state. And this is irrelevant for a couple of different reasons. North Carolina, as I understand it, anybody can request an absentee by mail ballot.
That is not necessarily the case throughout the rest of the country, correct, Andy?
Some states require some form of disability or you can't travel or there has to be some reason for you to vote by mail. That's not the case in the Tar Heel State. Yeah, yeah. North Carolina is a no-excuse absentee voting state. There are states that limit this to people that can document that they are going to be out of town on election day or during the entire early voting period, or they're sick.
Some states, you can qualify if you are over a certain age to request an absentee ballot.
Now, North Carolina is partly unique in having a no requirement to get an absentee ballot, but there are other ways. And we didn't used to be this way. This changed over the course of the 1990s that we became a no-excuse state. Yeah, and so we'll see many of those ballots begin the process of hitting mailboxes over the next couple of weeks. Andy, one of the things that you and I have talked about a lot over the last now two years that we've been doing this show is voter ID.
For folks that will be showing up and voting starting at October the 15th when early voting begins or showing up on election day, November the 3rd, they will be required. For most folks, that is a state-issued driver's license or state-issued ID. When you're getting a ballot mailed to you, obviously there's not a state board or a county board of election worker that is delivering that to you. How does voter ID work with those that choose to vote absentee across North Carolina?
Well, you're supposed to put a copy of that ID. And there's a wide range. Military IDs are good. Tribal IDs are good.
Some local employee IDs are good. Student IDs, as long as they go through a vetting process with the State Board of Elections.
So there's a wide range of IDs that can qualify for this.
So you make the copy. They've got a little envelope or a little slidey thing on the side of the envelope. You're supposed to put the copy of your ID on the outside of the ballot container envelope. And then it goes into the envelope that you actually mail it. And that way, they can go ahead and demonstrate, okay, this person did get the ID.
It is signed in the right place. It is witnessed.
So they can go through all the things to make sure that this is a legal ballot before they actually open the container envelope and pull the ballot out. And this way, if there is any problems and they are curable problems, which means a problem that you can fix, they will contact the voter. They'll keep that. Ballot envelope sealed, and they'll contact the voter, try to fix it. And if they can fix the problem, then they'll again open up the envelope and tabulate it.
The witness thing is interesting, Andy. We've been kind of trained as your vote is very secret and private when you show up and vote in person. You've got these little plastic dividers that keep you from being able to see anybody else's ballot or anybody to see yours. But as this process plays out in most people's homes, where presumably they're filling out an absentee ballot, what's the situation as it relates to a witness? How is that relevant?
Well, there's supposed to be two witnesses in North Carolina, and they're supposed to verify that you are the person who marked your ballot.
So, they're supposed to be close enough to see that you've got a ballot and you've got a pen and you're marking it, but they're not supposed to be close enough to see how you marked it.
So, for example, if you were sitting at your dining room table marking a ballot, they could be sitting either across from the table or out in the kitchen somewhere nearby that they could verify that you were the person that marked the ballot, that you're the one that put it in the absentee ballot container envelope, and then they would sign that container envelope. Yes, and that is a very relevant thing.
Now, you mentioned this debate over curable versus non-curable. These are not recommendations as it relates to a copy of the ID or these witness attestments on this form. That is required for an absentee ballot to move forward, correct? That is correct. You have to have it.
It has to be an ID that is current. There is a narrow exception for people that have an expired driver's license because of delays at the DMV, and they're legally allowed to use that expired driver's license for, I think, six more months. They can still use those. But everything else has to be a current ID of an acceptable type. And then once that is verified, then they're going to count it.
But yes, you do have to send an ID with your absentee ballot. How does the process result as it relates to returning that ballot? It is delivered by the United States Postal Service through the regular U. S. mail system.
How does the process work about getting the ballot back to your local county board of election? Right.
Well, the most straightforward way is just to mail it. A little secret is you need to put at least two stamps on there, but if you're a little short on the stamps, the post office will still deliver it. I mean, the post office doesn't want you to hear that. I mean, but that's the reality. They're still going to deliver it.
But hey, if you've got stamps, put them on there. Maybe put an extra one there to cover somebody else's. Pay it forward, as it were. But yeah, you just put it in the mail. I would highly recommend that you return your ballot at least 10 days before Election Day because there can be delays in the mail.
North Carolina has this, it's called ballot tracks. We're one of the states that has that.
So you get your number off of the envelope. You're able to kind of check with the state board of elections through ballot tracks and find out, okay, it's here. You can find out if it's been voted. You can also check voter files to see if your ballot hasn't come in. And that way, if it hasn't come in by election, Day, or maybe the last Saturday of early voting, then you can go ahead and vote there.
And this does happen occasionally where somebody mails the ballot. They don't see it. Show up on ballot tracks.
So they go in and vote in person, and then the ballot arrives the same day. What happens then is your in-person vote will be counted and your absentee ballot will be discarded because they can check and verify if somebody's voted twice that way. Yeah, and that's, of course, incredibly relevant. I mean, we have seen, unfortunately, in the past, not even with ballots, but just in general, you throw something in your mailbox, you put the flag up. There's no guarantee that it actually makes its way to the final destination.
So that ballot track system, very not only useful, but I would argue necessary to make sure that that ballot is delivered. There has been some questions in the years past, Andy, if you can bring your ballot to your local county board of election. That's the same entity that mailed it out. But as I understand it, you essentially need to do that yourself. There's been questions in the past about, you know, like a group delivery from a couple of neighbors or something like that.
How does that process play out? The only people that can deliver a ballot in person are either the voter or a near relative or guardian of somebody.
So like if you're a person under guardianship, if you're a child or a parent, you can deliver or spouse, they can deliver a spouse's ballot. But that's a narrow range. There is one exception that if somebody has a verified disability under the Americans with Disability Act, anybody can take their ballot.
Now, that leaves potential problems if there are people in assisted living facilities, people especially with like Alzheimer's or other situations where somebody could end up taking advantage of that situation. We've had a situation in Hope County where a couple of workers at an assisted living facility were convicted, I think, back in 2019 of something like that. By and large, if you're disabled, anybody can deliver a ballot. Anybody else, it has to be you or a very near relative. Yeah, very important there to make sure that the chain of custody, for lack of a better term, with that ballot is brought through to its entirety to making it safely to the board of election office.
How for folks that are obviously not here stateside in North Carolina, we obviously have a large military population. We've got folks that have lived in North Carolina in recent years. Maybe they're overseas for work. They have the ability to vote as well, but they don't use the traditional mail system because the logistics of that is obviously not practical for a lot of those folks.
Well, it depends on the situation. I used to live overseas and I voted several times and I use snail mail.
So you can do it. You just, you know, if you're overseas, you probably want to send that thing at least two weeks out, maybe 20 days, if you can manage it. You definitely want to forward that process as much as possible. There is a reason that federal law requires this called UOCAVA. It requires military and overseas ballots to go out at least 45 days, as long as you've made the request ahead of that time.
And that should give you enough time to receive it in most places.
Now, if there are other places that have problems with mail, military and overseas do have the option to vote via email or online. There's also this thing called the federal-only postcard ballot, where you basically write in your candidates and it's only for federal offices.
So North Carolina, it would be the Senate race and your congressional race if you know your congressional district.
So that's another thing that you. Could do and send it in that way because you could download that form and send it into your county board of elections.
So they do have those additional options.
Now online voting is inherently less secure than Mail voting, which is inherently less secure than voting in person.
So, if at all possible, I encourage people to vote in person. And also, the rejection rate, you're looking at in-person voting, you know, provisional ballots, people that don't have ID, you're looking at a rejection rate of less than half a percentage point. For male voting, North Carolina is up around 2%.
So, you have about a four times greater chance of your ballot not counting if you vote by mail than you vote in person. That is the nature of mail voting, as long as you're going to do it in any kind of secure way.
So, if you can vote in person, you should vote in person. It's amazing when you look at the calendar. Here we are in early September, and we are still more than two months away from Election Day. Folks already having the ability to cast ballots in this upcoming midterm election. We'll be keeping an eye on some of these absentee voter totals.
And of course, as we approach the middle part of October, really honing in on some of these early voting numbers. We appreciate the information and the insight this morning. Dr. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. For most students, math class moves at the wrong pace.
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North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger Jr. will not seek a second eight-year term as an associate justice on the state's high court in 2028. Berger issued a statement early Thursday morning on social media confirming that he will not run for re-election in two years. The interesting part, the statement does not indicate whether Berger plans to run instead for an eight-year term as the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. That job is expected to be open in 2028 as current Chief Justice and Paul Newby will be 73 years old, three years away from a mandatory retirement age of 76, which is set in state law.
in North Carolina. Both Newby and Berger are Republicans. The statement reads, in part, after talking with my family, I have decided that I will not seek re-election to my seat as an associate justice on the Supreme Court of North Carolina. I intend to serve out the remainder of my term, bringing the same consistency and commitment to the rule of law that I have tried to bring to this work from my first day on the bench. The statement continued by saying, Over the last two decades, the people of North Carolina have entrusted me with their confidence on many occasions as an elected district attorney, judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and in my current role on the state's high court.
service of this kind is not owed to anyone. It is given, and the people of this state have given it to me generously, and I have not taken it lightly. Regardless of the timing on this, the question does remain What Berger will do going forward. He served his first two years on the state Supreme Court, led by day four to three Democrat majority. Since 2023, he has been part of a 5-2 Republican majority.
And regardless of the outcome of this fall's general election, Republicans will maintain a majority going into the 2028 election cycle.
However, that is the year when three Republican seats are up, one of which being Berger, that we now know he will not run for. Ending his statement, he says, as for what comes next, I am giving serious thought to other ways I might serve the people of this state, and I am not prepared to say more than that at this time, except that my commitment to North Carolina and the law does not end with this term. The timing on this is very interesting. We will be keeping an eye on it in the weeks and months to come. Continuing coverage of this story over on our website this morning, CarolinaJournal.com.
That's going to do it for a Friday edition of the Carolina Journal News. Hour WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We are off Monday for the Labor Day holiday, but we'll be back with you Tuesday morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM WBT. When life gets busy, it's important to reach for the things that help keep you grounded. Enhance your focus with the new G2 Edge gel pens from Pilot.
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