If you are confused about the candidate filing for the 2022 elections, you are not alone.
As usual, the redistricting maps drawn by the North Carolina General Assembly, which has a Republican majority, are being challenged in court by various Democrat organizations.
However, the Greensboro City Council districts drawn by an all Democrat Greensboro City Council and the Guilford County Commissioner districts drawn by a Democrat majority Board of Commissioners are not, as yet, being challenged, so those races and the filings are unaffected.
However, the districts for North Carolina state House, state Senate and the US House of Representatives have been challenged and the filing for those races is a mess.
The first word from a panel of three North Carolina Superior Court judges on Friday, Dec. 3 was that the filing for state House, state Senate and US Congress could begin as scheduled on Monday, Dec. 6.
Then on Monday, Dec. 6, the day filing for those races was set to begin at noon, a North Carolina Court of Appeals three judge panel ordered that the filing be delayed. That court order delaying filing reached the North Carolina Board of Elections office at 11:27 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 6, or about a half an hour before filing was set to begin.
Filing for congressional seats must be done in Raleigh, and a number of prospective candidates from across the state had driven to Raleigh to file, only to find that filing had been postponed.
One of those, according to the News & Observer, was 12th District Rep. Alma Adams, a former Greensboro city councilmember who now resides in her district in Charlotte. Adams had driven from Charlotte to Raleigh to file Monday, only to find that the court order had delayed filing.
But it gets even more confusing because in the evening on Monday, Dec. 6, the full 15 member Court of Appeals met and rescinded the order delaying the filing, meaning that the filing for state House, state Senate and Congress could begin on Tuesday, Dec. 7.
So there were three different rulings from the courts over the span of a few days.
And it is likely to get even more confusing because, while the North Carolina Court of Appeals has a Republican majority, the North Carolina Supreme Court, which has the final say, has a Democratic majority.
At least one of the lawsuits has already been appealed to the NC Supreme Court.
