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North Carolina House Republicans have enacted legislation that erodes some powers of several statewide offices newly-elected Democrats are slated to hold next month. Lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto.

North Carolina’s elections board has dismissed protests filed by several Republican candidates trailing narrowly in their races last month who have questioned well over 60,000 ballots cast this fall. The Democratic-majority board agreed Wednesday to throw out the protests of GOP Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin and three legislative candidates.

A very close election for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat heads next to a hand recount. That comes after a machine recount of well over 5 million ballots resulted in no margin change between the candidates.

Sen. Dan Blue of Wake County first joined the General Assembly in 1981 and was elected the state's first Black House speaker in 1991. Blue has been the Senate minority leader for over a decade. But on Monday the Senate Democratic Caucus elected Sen. Sydney Batch as the minority leader for the next two-year session.

Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday vetoed a bill that would shift power away from incoming Governor Josh Stein and other newly elected Democrats.

North Carolina Senate Republicans have left their leadership team mostly intact for the next two years. That includes choosing Sen. Phil Berger again to hold the chamber's most powerful position.

North Carolina House Republicans have carried out a succession plan to choose the chamber's rules committee chairman to succeed Rep. Tim Moore after 10 years as speaker. Republicans who recently won House elections met Tuesday and chose Rep. Destin Hall of Caldwell County to succeed Moore in the post when the next two-year session opens in January.

Republican state lawmakers want to strip power from Gov.-elect Josh Stein and other newly elected Democratic state officials, including by shifting oversight of elections from the governor’s appointees to the new Republican state auditor.

If the margin in a race for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court remains below 8,000 votes, the runner-up could demand a recount.

Republican Jefferson Griffin leads Democrat incumbent Justice Allison Riggs in a race for a seat on the state Supreme Court by fewer than 10,000 votes, with many thousands of provisional ballots still to process