RALEIGH, N.C. — Three weeks after Election Day, the North Carolina governor’s race remains an unresolved, hotly contested muddle. The Democratic challenger, Roy Cooper, has declared victory. But the Republican incumbent, Pat McCrory, trailing by thousands of votes in the as-yet-unfinished tally, has refused to concede, as he and his allies charge that the election was marred by numerous irregularities.

Mr. McCrory’s foes are furious. Last week, they parked a U-Haul truck in front of the governor’s mansion and waved moving boxes adorned with the face of Ray Charles as they sang, “Hit the Road, Pat.” On Monday evening, hundreds gathered at the state Capitol, shouting, “No stealing our election!”

The North Carolina imbroglio is so complicated, with so many moving pieces, that a spokesman for the State Board of Elections could not say Tuesday when it might be resolved. It comes amid four years of pitched ideological battles in a state sharply split between Democrats and Republicans.

But it also comes amid a broader wave of skepticism about the integrity of the basic mechanics of the American electoral process, including the recount of the presidential results in three states sought by Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. The move enraged President-elect Donald J. Trump, who this week said on Twitter that “millions” of people had illegally voted for Hillary Clinton, a widely derided claim for which he offered no evidence. </s> WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - A three-judge federal panel ordered congressional districts in North Carolina to be redrawn ahead of the 2018 elections, ruling on Tuesday that the current Republican-drawn map was illegal and unconstitutionally partisan.

The judges said the state legislator responsible for the 2016 map had said he drew it to give Republican candidates an advantage.

“But that is not a choice the Constitution allows legislative map drawers to make,” the court said.

Ralph Hise, North Carolina’s state Senate Redistricting Chairman, said through a spokeswoman that lawmakers would appeal.

Democrats and the groups that brought the suit applauded the ruling.

“Today’s ruling is a major victory for North Carolina and people across the state whose voices were silenced by Republicans’ unconstitutional attempts to rig the system to their partisan advantage,” North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin said in a statement.

While prior court decisions had ruled against unconstitutional racial gerrymandering in North Carolina, Common Cause - one of the public-interest groups that filed the lawsuit - said the ruling marked the first time a court had struck down partisan gerrymandering in the state.

The U.S. Supreme Court last June upheld a lower court’s ruling that Republican lawmakers in North Carolina had mapped state legislative districts in a way that diluted the clout of black voters.

The judges gave the state until Jan. 29 to file a proposed remedial plan with the court. </s> North Carolina voter ID rules are posted at the door of a voting station at the Alamance Fire Station in Greensboro, N.C., on March 15, 2016.

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal to reinstate North Carolina's voter identification law that a lower court said targeted African Americans “with almost surgical precision.”

The justices on Monday left in place the lower court ruling striking down the law's photo ID requirement and reduction in early voting.

The situation was complicated when Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Atty. Gen. Josh Stein tried to withdraw the appeal, which was first filed when Republican Pat McCrory was governor.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the political situation created uncertainty over who is authorized to seek review of the lower-court ruling.

The dispute is similar to the court fight over Texas' voter ID law, also struck down as racially discriminatory.
Recounts begin in North Carolina.