Cooper’s office said Monday that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services late last week approved the plan submitted by the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Cooper and health department leaders have described the plan as a first-of-its-kind proposal in the country to give hospitals a new financial carrot to cancel debt they hold on low- and middle-income patients and to help residents avoid it. The effort also received praise Monday from Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee.

Cooper’s administration has estimated the plan has the potential to help 2 million low- and middle-income people in the state get rid of $4 billion in debt. Cooper has said hospitals wouldn’t recoup most of this money anyway.

“This debt relief program is another step toward improving the health and well-being of North Carolinians while supporting financial sustainability of our hospitals,” state Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley said in a release.

The proposal, which DHHS will now work to carry out, focuses on enhanced Medicaid reimbursement payments that acute-care, rural or university-connected hospitals can receive through what’s called Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program.

The General Assembly approved this program last year along with provisions sought by Cooper for years that expanded Medicaid coverage in the state to working adults who couldn’t otherwise qualify for conventional Medicaid.

Any of the roughly 100 hospitals participating in the program are now poised to receive even higher levels of reimbursement if they voluntarily do away with patients’ medical debt going back to early 2014 on current Medicaid enrollees — and on non-enrollees who make below certain incomes or whose debt exceeds 5% of their annual income.

Going forward, the hospitals also would have to help low- and middle-income patients — for example, those in a family of four making no more than $93,600 — by providing deep discounts on medical bills. The hospitals would have to enroll people automatically in charity care programs, agree not to sell their debt to collectors or tell credit reporting agencies about unpaid bills. Interest rates on medical debt also would be capped.

When Cooper unveiled the proposal July 1, the North Carolina Healthcare Association — which lobbies for nonprofit and for-profit hospitals, said the group and its members needed more time to review the proposal and awaited the response from the federal government.

Speaking last week at a roundtable discussion in Winston-Salem about the effort, Cooper said hospitals have “reacted somewhat negatively” to the effort. But many hospitals have engaged with us and and given us advice on how to write the procedures in order to help them if they decided to adopt this,” Cooper added.

State officials have said debt relief for individuals under the program would likely occur in 2025 and 2026. Cooper’s term ends in January, so the program’s future could depend on who wins the November gubernatorial election.

Other state and local governments have tapped into federal American Rescue Plan funds to help purchase and cancel residents’ debt for pennies on the dollar.

The vice president’s news release supporting North Carolina’s effort didn’t specifically mention Cooper, who is considered a potential running mate for Harris this fall. Harris highlighted efforts with President Joe Biden to forgive over $650 million in medical debt and to eliminate even more.

“Last month, I issued a call to states, cities, and hospitals across our nation to join us in forgiving medical debt,” she said. “I applaud North Carolina for setting an example that other states can follow.”

The state Department of Health and Human Services revealed a larger amount in a Friday letter to Yolanda Hill following a compliance review of Balanced Nutrition Inc., for which Hill is listed as owner and chief financial officer. Robinson, who is also the Republican nominee for governor this fall, worked in the nonprofit years ago before running for elected office, according to his memoir.

Hill previously announced she was shutting down the nonprofit’s enterprise and withdrawing from the Child and Adult Care Food Program on April 30. But state officials had already announced in March that the fiscal year’s review of Balanced Nutrition would begin April 15.

The review’s findings, released Wednesday, cited new and repeat problems, including lax paperwork and the failure to file valid claims on behalf of child care operators or to report expenses accurately. The program told Hill and other leaders to soon take corrective action on the “serious deficiencies” or regulators would propose they be disqualified from future program participation.

The state health department said on Thursday that the Greensboro nonprofit also owed the state $24,400 in unverified expenses reimbursed to several child care providers or homes examined by regulators in the review.

But Friday’s letter counted another $107,719 in ineligible claims or expenses that the state said was generated while Balanced Nutrition performed administrative and operating activities as a program sponsor during the first three months of the year. Forms signed by regulators attributed over $80,000 of these disallowed costs to “administrative labor” or “operating labor.” The records don’t provide details about the labor costs.

This week’s compliance review did say that Balanced Nutrition should have disclosed and received approval from the program that Hill’s daughter was working for the nonprofit.

The owed amounts and proposed program disqualification can be appealed. A lawyer representing Balanced Nutrition and Hill did not immediately respond to an email Friday seeking comment.

The lawyer, Tyler Brooks, has previously questioned the review’s timing, alleging Balanced Nutrition was being targeted because Hill is Robinson’s wife and that “political bias” tainted the compliance review process. Program leaders, meanwhile, have described in written correspondence difficulties in obtaining documents and meeting with Balanced Nutrition leaders.

The health department is run by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration. He was term-limited from seeking reelection. Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein is running against Robinson for governor.

Balanced Nutrition helped child care centers and homes qualify to participate in the free- and reduced-meal program, filed claims for centers to get reimbursed for meals for enrollees and ensured the centers remained in compliance with program requirements. The nonprofit received a portion of a center’s reimbursement for its services.

Balanced Nutrition, funded by taxpayers, has collected roughly $7 million in government funding since 2017, while paying out at least $830,000 in salaries to Hill, Robinson and other members of their family, tax filings and state documents show.

Robinson described in his memoir how the operation brought fiscal stability to his family, giving him the ability to quit a furniture manufacturing job in 2018 and begin a career in politics.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s election board voted Tuesday to certify a political party that wants to put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the state’s presidential ballot this fall. The panel rejected a similar petition effort by a group backing Cornel West, citing questions about how signatures were collected.

After weeks of reviewing the signature drives, the board voted 4-1 to recognize the We The People party that supporters of Kennedy, an author and environmental lawyer, are using as a vehicle for him to run in a handful of states. The election board decision means the party can place Kennedy on statewide ballots.

But the board’s Democratic majority voted 3-2 along party lines to block the Justice for All Party of North Carolina from ballots. That group supports West, a professor and progressive activist.

Board staff said We The People and Justice for All each collected enough valid signatures from registered and qualified voters. The 13,865 required are a small fraction of those needed to run as an independent candidate in North Carolina, which Kennedy initially attempted.

Board Chair Alan Hirsch, a Democrat, said that while he believed thousands of signatures turned in by Justice for All were credible, he had serious misgivings about the purpose of signature collectors unrelated to the group that also turned in petitions.

In a video presented to the board, a pro-Donald Trump activist collected signatures for West outside a Trump rally in North Carolina and said getting West on the ballot would take votes away from presumptive Democratic nominee and President Joe Biden.

Separately, Hirsch pointed to the group People Over Party collecting signatures to support West’s candidacy. He said its attorney refused to provide information sought in a board subpoena. A People Over Party lawyer called the subpoena requests overly broad and subject to attorney-client privilege.

“I have no confidence that this was done legitimately,” Hirsch said of the petition drive.

Board staff also said that of nearly 50 people contacted at random from the Justice For All petition list, many said they didn’t sign the petition or didn’t know what it was for.

The election board’s two Republican members said both groups should have been recognized as official parties.

“Justice for All has submitted well over the number of petitions required. And if we don’t approve them as a new party in the state of North Carolina based on talking to 49 people, I think that would be injustice for all,” GOP member Kevin Lewis said.

Republicans and their allies have said the board’s Democratic majority was trying to deny ballot access to candidates who would take away votes from Biden in the battleground state won by Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Justice for All Party of North Carolina Chair Italo Medelius said he expected the party would soon ask a federal judge to order its candidates be placed on the ballot. The Kennedy campaign didn’t immediately respond to an email Tuesday seeking comment on We The People’s recognition.

Not including North Carolina, Kennedy’s campaign has said he is officially on the ballot in nine states and that signatures have been submitted in 14 more. The West campaign said it has secured ballot access in 10 other states, but acknowledged some certifications must still be finalized.

In some states, the drives to get West and Kennedy on ballot have been backed by secretive groups and Republican donors.

The Constitution Party of North Carolina will join several other parties already officially recognized by the state. Board staff determined the party collected enough valid signatures from registered and qualified voters to exceed a threshold set in state law. The Constitution Party had been an official party in 2020, but it failed to perform well enough in that election to remain one.

Two weeks ago, the State Board of Elections voted 3-2 against a motion giving the Constitution Party formal recognition, citing concern about the mailing address for the group’s chairman on signature collection documents. The board’s Democratic majority made up the prevailing side. But board Chair Alan Hirsch said before Tuesday’s 5-0 vote that the issue was very technical in nature. “I am of the view that on reflection that we shouldn’t stand in the way for any potential technical errors,” Hirsch said.

The Democratic majority last month also declined to approve official recognition of the We The People party and Justice for All Party of North Carolina, although board officials confirmed that both petition efforts had turned in more valid signatures than the 13,865 required. That threshold is much larger than what Kennedy, an author and environmental lawyer, and West, a professor and progressive activist, would have needed if they sought to run statewide as independent candidates.

The board’s Democrats said they wanted more information about what petition gatherers for the We The People, backing Kennedy, and Justice for All, aligned with West, told voters about the nascent parties. State law requires that they must communicate the “purpose and intent” of the new parties to petition signers. They also wanted board staff to attempt to contact signers who later filled out affidavits asking that their names be removed.

Hirsch, a Democrat, said Tuesday more time was needed for staff to take in more details. Responses to several subpoenas issued by the board had not been returned by Tuesday’s meeting, board attorney Paul Cox said.

Hirsch offered no date for the next meeting but said that “we will do that promptly in plenty of time to get these folks on the ballot, should they be approved as parties.”

North Carolina political parties have until mid-August to submit their presidential ticket candidate names to the board in time for ballots to be prepared. The national Constitution Party this year nominated anti-abortion activist Randall Terry as its presidential candidate.

Adding presidential candidates raises the stakes about who will win North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes. Republican Donald Trump won the state in both 2016 and in 2020, but his margin over Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 was less than 1.4 percentage points.

Republican board members expressed frustration Tuesday with another delay, saying the board should stop second-guessing voters who signed the petitions and what signature collectors expressed about their party’s purpose and give official recognition. The state Democratic Party and Clear Choice Action, a group affiliated with a super PAC aligned with Biden’s allies, wrote the board last month asking that the petitions be rejected.

“I’m just completely at a loss of what’s going on here,” GOP board member Kevin Lewis told Hirsch, adding that the deferrals are “bringing a lot of bad publicity on the board. Your motives are starting to be questioned.”

Hirsch declined to respond directly to Lewis’ allegations of partisanship. He said later: “We’re gonna take the evidence where it leads us.”

Republican politicians, including Trump’s campaign, have also blasted the board’s delay as politically motivated. “Democratic partisans on the State Board of Elections have ignored clear state law and refused to certify third parties that pose a threat to Joe Biden in November,” state House Speaker Tim Moore said after Tuesday’s meeting.

Not including North Carolina, Kennedy’s campaign has said he is officially on the ballot in 10 states and has submitted signatures in 11 more states. The West campaign said it has secured ballot access in eight states, but acknowledged some certifications must still be finalized.

Cooper signed 12 pieces of legislation. Those measures in part locate $68 million to replace expired federal child care center grants for the next six months, ensure anticipated teacher raises for this school year are carried out and resume the automatic removal of criminal charges that were dismissed or that resulted in “not guilty” verdicts.

The state constitution gave Cooper until late Monday night to act on the 14 remaining measures. The vetoed bill, which received unanimous legislative approval, partly addressed how certain court-filed documents are formatted. But Cooper said in his veto message that the bill also “creates legal ambiguity” about eviction orders that could harm low-income people and make it harder to appeal them in court.

The vetoed measures bring to five the number that he formally blocked from the batch of almost 30 bills that the legislators left him in late June. Since Republicans hold narrow veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate, the chances that these vetoes will be overridden are high.

Exactly when the legislature would attempt overrides is unclear, however. The General Assembly is scheduled to meet occasionally for short periods through year’s end starting Wednesday, when no action likely will be taken except to formally receive Cooper’s veto messages. Overrides become difficult when even a handful of GOP members can’t come to Raleigh.

Cooper said the “Regulatory Reform Act” that he declined to sign into law contained some important changes that should become law — and will by his inaction. But he said it also contains a provision where the General Assembly seeks to interfere with the charter and bylaws of the North Carolina Railroad, a private corporation whose stock is owned by the state.

“This isn’t about improving transportation for the people of North Carolina, it’s just another unconstitutional power grab by Republicans,” Cooper said in a news release.

Cooper signed on Monday two budget-related bills that the legislature passed as stopgaps since the Senate and House couldn’t agree on broad adjustments to the second year of the two-year budget enacted last fall. One of the bills includes language formally enacting an average 3% base salary increase for public school teachers starting this fall that lawmakers had previously agreed upon. The other contains child care grant funds.

Cooper said in a news release that legislators should pay teachers significantly more, find a way to extend the grants through 2025 and invest more in early childhood education.

Another bill that Cooper signed into law creates new sex exploitation and extortion crimes. And an omnibus alcohol regulation measure he signed would give local Alcoholic Beverage Control boards discretion to open their retail stores on New Year’s Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day, but not if Jan. 1 or July 4 falls on a Sunday.

Other bills Cooper recently vetoed address the use of all-terrain and utility vehicles on conventional roads and prohibit local governments from passing housing rules that would prevent landlords from refusing to accept tenants who use federal funds to assist with rent. He also vetoed last week some state building code changes and legislation barring state government from accepting cryptocurrency payments developed by a central bank.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and his health chief unveiled a plan Monday that they want federal Medicaid regulators to approve soon. It would allow roughly 100 hospitals that recently began receiving enhanced federal Medicaid reimbursement funds to get even more money.

But to qualify an acute-care, rural or university-connected hospital would have to voluntarily do away with patients’ medical debt going back to early 2014 on current Medicaid enrollees — and on non-enrollees who make below certain incomes or whose debt exceeds 5% of their annual income.

Going forward, these hospitals also would have to help low- and middle-income patients — for example, those in a family of four making no more than $93,600 — by providing deep discounts on medical bills incurred. The hospitals would have to enroll people automatically in charity care programs, agree not to sell their debt to collectors or tell credit reporting agencies about unpaid bills. Interest rates on medical debt also would be capped.

The plan has the potential to help 2 million people in the state get rid of $4 billion in debt, Cooper said, much of which hospitals are never going to recoup anyway.

“It’s clear that by providing relief for medical debt, we give North Carolinians not just peace of mind, but truly a fresh start,” state Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley said at a governor’s mansion news conference.

Other state and local governments have tapped into federal American Rescue Plan funds to help purchase and cancel residents’ debt for pennies on the dollar. Kinsley said North Carolina’s proposed initiative would be different by creating a long-term solution to debt.

North Carolina legislators last year created enhanced Medicaid reimbursement payments for hospitals — called the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program — alongside provisions that expanded Medicaid coverage in the state to working adults who couldn’t otherwise qualify for conventional Medicaid. Almost 500,000 people already have enrolled for the expanded Medicaid offered since last December. But that hasn’t done away with past debt, Cooper said.

“Large judgments remain on the books that prevent people from buying a house or getting a credit card,” Cooper said. “The weight of medical debt still casts a long shadow. So first we expanded Medicaid, and now we must reduce medical debt to help North Carolinians and our economy thrive.”

The proposal, which Kinsley said was a first of its kind, doesn’t require a new state law and won’t cost the state any additional funds. But the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must approve the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program changes sought last week. Kinsley said in an earlier interview that he believes regulators will be “aggressive in their approval.” Cooper’s administration wraps up at year’s end, since he’s barred by term limits from reelection.

To sweeten the deal, the financial possibilities for hospitals in the debt program that agree to debt alterations appear rich. The state Department of Health and Human Services said hospitals that choose to participate would be eligible to share funds from a pot of up to $6.5 billion for next year. Those who don’t can share from $3.2 billion.

The debt relief wouldn’t begin right away, with consumers benefitting in 2025 and 2026, according to state DHHS.

The effort also depends on the willingness of the state’s hospitals to participate. The North Carolina Healthcare Association — which lobbies for nonprofit and for-profit hospitals — said later Monday that the group and its members need more time to review the proposal and look forward to hearing how federal regulators respond.

“North Carolina hospitals and health systems are committed to the care and well-being of all North Carolinians, and we recognize that medical debt is a concern for many,” the association said in a news release, citing hospital efforts for “providing safe, high-quality care to all, regardless of their ability to pay.”

Republican State Treasurer Dale Folwell has questioned the commitment of the state’s largest nonprofit hospital systems to treat patients who are poor at free or reduced rates. Folwell was still backing Monday proposed legislation requiring hospitals to provide more charity care.

Representatives of patient advocacy groups at the news conference praised Cooper’s effort. The proposal gives “patients the ability to focus on what’s most important, which is their health, instead of worrying about when the debt collector is going to call again and demand payment,” Dave Almeida with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society said.

A group called Undue Medical Debt that’s assisted other governments with buying medical debt and erasing it also would work on North Carolina’s effort, DHHS said.

They are running their own a bill that would adjust the second year of the two-year state government budget enacted last fall because private negotiations with Senate GOP counterparts on a consensus spending plan in recent weeks have faltered. Senate leader Phil Berger has complained that House GOP leaders want to spend more than Republicans in his chamber are willing and from reserves.

So House Speaker Tim Moore decided to move a House-only measure through his chamber this week to emphasize their priorities and potentially prod senators to act. But the move raises the threat that legislators could adjourn this summer without a budget law that contains wide-ranging adjustments.

A top House budget-writer downplayed the current differences with the Senate, suggesting the two sides were only a couple hundred million dollars apart on spending, largely over teacher pay, a proposed retiree bonus and Medicaid provider rates.

“It’s a matter now of taking a few items that are still — I call them stumbling blocks — and getting those resolved the best we can and then get back on track,” Rep. Donny Lambeth, a Forsyth County Republican and senior budget co-chairman, said after the budget committee approved the $31.7 billion plan. Lambeth was hopeful a compromise could still be reached next week.

The bill would set aside $135 million in one-time funds to replace child care stabilization grants from Washington that began during the pandemic but are to end come July. It falls short of the $300 million that some child care advocates say are needed to keep centers from raising tuition, laying off workers or even closing. The Senate has been less inclined to fill the hole.

House Republicans said the $135 million is equivalent to 75% of the stabilization grants currently received and give officials time while looking for a long-term solution.

The enacted second year of the budget already has rank-and-file state employees poised to receive 3% raises in the coming year, with teachers on average also receiving 3% raises. But under the House plan making its way through three committees on Tuesday state employees would see 4% raises instead, while correctional and probation and parole officers would get 9% raises.

And teachers would instead receive average 4.4 % raises, according to Moore’s office, with early-career instructors obtaining the largest percentage increases. First-year base teacher salaries would grow from $39,000 during this school year to $44,000 in the fall — a move to make North Carolina more attractive to new teachers.

The measure does include provisions passed separately by the Senate last month that would provide over $460 million more to the state’s Opportunity Scholarship program to help end waiting lists of nearly 55,000 students who are qualified to receive scholarships this fall to attend private K-12 schools. There was a massive increase in program applications after legislators last year did away with income eligibility caps that had limited recipients. The language also would address higher permanent demand for scholarships.

The bill also spends $350 million already within a state Medicaid reserve fund to address higher-than-anticipated enrollment and $150 million in another reserve to pay for transportation projects designed for a new Toyota electric battery plant being built in Randolph County that will employ thousands.

The bill would head to the Senate after planned House floor votes Wednesday and Thursday. Berger has suggested that his chamber may not offer a competing plan, but instead could send the Senate home for an undetermined period if no agreement with the House is reached by June 30.

Any final spending measures would go to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who offered his own budget plan in April. He wants to block expansion of the school-voucher program, offer higher raises to teachers and state employees and spend hundreds of millions of dollars more for child care and early education initiatives. But Republicans hold narrow veto-proof majorities in both chambers, meaning they don’t need Cooper’s support if they remain united.

Democratic Rep. Julie von Haefen of Wake County called the unveiling of House spending plan “really all theater” since she said it likely will be ignored by the Senate.

“We’re going through the motions here,” von Haefen told reporters. “They’re not really serious about actually getting things done in this building.” She said House Democrats will seek to offer amendments and promote Democratic priorities in floor debate.

The House voted 71-33 to accept changes made last month by the Republican-controlled Senate — with the support of a lobbying group representing elected local prosecutors — to what is known as the “Raise the Age” law.

In late 2019, the bipartisan “Raise the Age” effort ended a mandate that children ages 16 and 17 be tried in the adult criminal justice system. By trying them in juvenile court, the law aimed to help more young people avoid the stigma of having lifetime criminal records and provide services that reduce chances for recidivism.

Still, the law in its current form says that cases of 16- and 17-year-olds accused of the most serious felonies must be transferred to adult court after a notice of an indictment is handed up, or when a hearing determines there is probable cause a crime was committed. There are exceptions.

The language now heading to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk would end the transfer requirement for most of these high-grade felonies and simply place the cases of these youths in adult court right away.

Bill supporters have argued the changes aren’t rolling back “Raise the Age,” but are merely adjustments to reflect practical realities of the criminal justice system — juvenile-court cases for district attorneys are growing, and putting them in adult court to begin with will ease their loads.

But advocates for civil rights and the disabled said last month in committee that the changes are dismantling “Raise the Age” provisions and ultimately harm youthful offenders. Young people in the juvenile system can receive better access to youth-focused treatments before they return to their communities.

Durham County Democratic Rep. Marcia Morey, a former juvenile court judge, urged colleagues not to accept the Senate’s provisions. Morey said these young offenders should be treated uniformly based on their age, and not specifically on crimes.

“The system is working the way it should now,” Morey said. “Rolling back ‘Raise the Age’ with this bill by inventing a fiction of what a juvenile is based on a crime and not the age is the wrong way to go.” Two other former judges in the House also spoke against the Senate provisions.

The House member shepherding the bill, GOP Rep. Ted Davis of New Hanover County, didn’t directly address the voices of opposition on the floor but said several groups and lawmakers were involved in crafting the language.

Cooper’s office didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to an email seeking comment on the bill heading to his desk. The governor can either sign the bill into law or veto it within 10 days of its receipt. Otherwise it becomes law.

The bill also creates a new process whereby a case can be removed from Superior Court to juvenile court — with the adult records deleted — if the prosecutor and the defendant’s attorney agree to do so.

North Carolina had been the last state in which 16- and 17-year-olds were automatically prosecuted as adults when “Raise the Age” was implemented. These youths are still being tried in adult court for motor vehicle-related crimes.

Children ages 13 through 15 who are accused of first-degree murder still must be automatically transferred to juvenile court upon an indictment or hearing that finds probable cause.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — This fall’s presidential ballot in battleground North Carolina appears poised to lengthen after three political movements seeking to run candidates filed voter signature lists with state election officials by a Monday deadline.

Groups that want Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West on the ballot — the “We The People” party and Justice for All Party respectively — as well as the Constitution Party had initiated petition drives to receive official party designations. That would allow the groups to field candidates for any position in the November election, not just for president.

Based on state law, the proposed parties had to collect at least 13,865 valid signatures from registered and qualified voters and turn in enough signature sheets by noon Monday. Signature lists already had to be filed at county board of offices by May 17 to give officials there time to determine whether they were registered voters.

A petition webpage by the State Board of Elections indicates all three groups have valid signatures that exceed the threshold. Board officials still must review signatures and petition details to ensure compliance, however. The state board — composed of three Democrats and two Republicans — would have to meet soon to formally vote to recognize any or all of these groups as new political parties. New political parties would have to quickly offer their candidates for the ballot.

Adding presidential candidates further raise the stakes and uncertainty about who will win North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes. While Republican Donald Trump won the state in both 2016 and in 2020, his margin over Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 was less than 1.4 percentage points — the closest margin of any state Trump won that year.

The Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green and No Labels parties already are officially recognized in North Carolina. But the largest bloc of voters in the state are now those registered unaffiliated — nearly 2.8 million voters out of the state’s almost 7.5 million registrants.

Italo Medelius-Marsano, a co-chair of the state Justice for All Party of North Carolina, said the group’s signature collection over three months speaks to the public’s unhappiness with the major parties.

“This really is a testament of the will of the people of North Carolina to dethrone the two parties,” he said at a Raleigh news conference. “People are tired with having two parties controlling the public ballot.” Medelius-Marsano said he expects the state party will hold a convention soon to nominate West, and its leaders may consider candidates for down-ballot races.

Getting on the ballot as a candidate through a new political party in North Carolina is less daunting than doing so as an independent candidate. State law requires an independent candidate to collect at least 83,188 qualifying signatures, and they would have had to be turned in earlier.

West, a professor and progressive activist, announced earlier this year the creation of a national Justice for All Party to secure ballot access in specific states. “We the People” was created to help Kennedy, an author and environmental lawyer, run as a candidate in North Carolina and elsewhere.

As of late last week, Kennedy’s campaign said he was officially on the ballot in eight states and had collected signatures for ballot access in nine others. The West campaign said Monday it has currently qualified in seven states.

The Constitution Party has been an official party in North Carolina in the past, including for the 2020 elections. The national party this year nominated anti-abortion activist Randall Terry as its presidential candidate.

The state board recognized No Labels Party as an official North Carolina party last August. But in April the political movement said it would not field a presidential candidate.

Achieving party status in North Carolina means registered voters also can formally affiliate with a new party. As of last weekend, about 10,300 registered voters were affiliated with No Labels and about 2,200 with the Green Party.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina board that regulates land surveyors didn’t violate a drone photography pilot’s constitutional rights when it told him to stop advertising and offering aerial map services because he lacked a state license, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday.

The panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in upholding a trial court’s decision, found the free-speech protections of Michael Jones and his 360 Virtual Drone Services business weren’t violated by the state’s requirement for a license to offer surveying services.

The litigation marked an emerging conflict between technology disrupting the hands-on regulated profession of surveying. A state license requires educational and technical experience, which can include examinations and apprenticeships.

Jones sought to expand his drone pilot career by taking composite images that could assist construction companies and others with bird’s-eye views of their interested tracts of land. The North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors began investigating his activities in late 2018.

The board wrote to Jones in June 2019 and ordered him to stop engaging in “mapping, surveying and photogrammetry; stating accuracy; providing location and dimension data; and producing orthomosaic maps, quantities and topographic information.” Performing surveying work without a license can subject someone to civil and criminal liability.

By then, Jones had placed a disclaimer on his website saying the maps weren’t meant to replace proper surveys needed for mortgages, title insurance and land-use applications. He stopped trying to develop his mapping business but remained interested in returning to the field in the future, according to Monday’s opinion. So he sued board members in 2021 on First Amendment grounds.

U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan sided with the board members last year, determining that the rules withstood scrutiny because they created a generally applicable licensing system that regulated primarily conduct rather than speech.

Circuit Judge Jim Wynn, writing Monday’s unanimous opinion by the three-member panel, said determining whether such a business prohibition crosses over to a significant speech restriction can be difficult.

“Even where a regulation is in fact aimed at professional conduct, States must still be able to articulate how the regulation is sufficiently drawn to promote a substantial state interest,” Wynn said.

In this case, he wrote, it’s important that people can rely on surveyors to provide accurate maps. And there’s no evidence that the maps that Jones wants to create would constitute “unpopular or dissenting speech,” according to Wynn.

“There is a public interest in ensuring there is an incentive for individuals to go through that rigorous process and become trained as surveyors,” he wrote, adding the licensing law “protects consumers from potentially harmful economic and legal consequences that could flow from mistaken land measurements.”

Sam Gedge, an attorney at the Institute for Justice firm representing Jones, said Monday that he and his client want to further appeal the case, whether through the full 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, Virginia, or at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Monday’s ruling says “the state can criminalize sharing certain types of photos without a government-issued license. And it does so on the theory that such a law somehow does not regulate ‘speech,’” Gedge wrote in an email. “That reasoning is badly flawed. Taking photos and providing information to willing clients is speech, and it’s fully protected by the First Amendment.”

Joining Wynn — a former North Carolina appeals court judge — in Monday’s opinion were Circuit Judges Steven Agee and Stephanie Thacker.