Federal Judge Refuses to Intervene in Undecided N.C. Election

Federal Judge Terrence Boyle refused yesterday an appeal from the Republican Party of North Carolina to get involved in the still undecided race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Republicans were asking Boyle to void the state law passed after the election that mandates the counting of provisional ballots cast outside home precincts. The state supreme court had earlier thrown out some 11,000 provisional ballots.

The Republicans were perhaps banking on Judge Boyle's reputation as a partisan jurist. Boyle is one of the dozen Bush nominees to a higher court that the Senate Democrats are promising to filibuster. El Presidente has nominated Boyle to a seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, one level below the Supreme Court and probably the most conservative circuit in the country.