Mark Barrett

mbarrett@citizen-times.com

Both Tom Hill and the federal judge hearing the case said early in Hill's appeal of his loss to Rick Bryson in the June Democratic primary for the 11th Congressional District that the odds of Hill winning were slim.

They were right.

U.S. District Court Judge Max Cogburn has dismissed Hill's lawsuit, writing that Hill can't sue in federal court because he hasn't pursued the matter in state courts first.

A federal court in February found North Carolina's congressional district lines invalid. State officials said there wasn't enough time to redraw the lines, hold a new filing period and change ballots before the March 15 primary, so congressional candidates' names remained on the primary ballot even though the state considers votes for them null and void. It held a new primary June 7 based on new district lines.

Hill lost the June primary by 255 votes. Representing himself, he then said the way the two votes were held was unconstitutional and sought release of results from the March 15 primary.

Cogburn ruled Oct. 7 that after Hill lost before the State Board of Elections, Hill should have taken his lawsuit to state court, as outlined by state law. Hill's suit "cannot be maintained as a matter of well settled federal law, he wrote.