RALEIGH, N.C.  – A North Carolina judge is due to rule on whether to continue a lawsuit protesting former Gov. Mike Easley’s policy of destroying e-mail correspondence.

A Wake County judge will hear arguments Monday on whether to dismiss the lawsuit.

Gov. Beverly Perdue ordered last month that most e-mails sent or received by executive-branch employees should be preserved to comply with public records laws. Easley issued a similar order on his final day in office in January.

Media organizations including The Associated Press accused Easley and his administration of violating the state’s public records law for deleting e-mail messages. The lawsuit came after a former administration spokeswoman described a policy of deleting e-mails sent to and from the governor’s office.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – A Senate committee has backed limits to a North Carolina law that allows scorned spouses to sue and collect damages for stolen affection and adultery.

A Senate judiciary committee on Tuesday recommended a bill barring lawsuits for amorous acts after a married couple separated, and puts a three-year time limit on the lawsuits. Jilted spouses also could not sue a business.

North Carolina is one of only about a half dozen states that still allow a spouse to sue their wayward partner’s lover for stolen affection. Sen. Daniel Clodfelter of Mecklenburg County said North Carolina is the only state that allows lawsuits over a spouse’s adultery.

Senators said the lawsuits are primarily filed by revenge-seeking spouses of wealthy people.

House Speaker Joe Hackney says he wants to try again for a bill that would give legal fees to those who win in public records lawsuits, the N&O reports.

RALEIGH, N.C. – U.S. Senator-elect Kay Hagan has filed motions to drop her lawsuit against Elizabeth Dole.

RICHMOND, Va. – Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign sued the Virginia election board Monday, claiming absentee ballots weren’t mailed on time to military members serving overseas.

The complaint asks the U.S. District Court in Richmond to order the state to count absentee ballots postmarked by Tuesday and received by Nov. 14. It contends that thousands of troops’ ballots – many of which would go to McCain – will not be counted.

The deadline for ballots to be received is 7 p.m. Election Day, which is Tuesday.

The lawsuit is the second in a week to challenge preparations for the presidential election in Virginia, where Barack Obama hopes to become the first Democrat since 1964 to win the state’s 13 electoral votes. Polls over the past week show him about even with or slightly ahead of McCain.

More than 436,000 new Virginia voters have registered since Jan. 1, and about 500,000 people – a tenth of the state’s electorate- have cast absentee ballots.

The NAACP sued the state last week, alleging it allotted too few voting machines for the enormous number of voters in majority black precincts expected to be drawn by the prospect of electing Obama as the first black president.

U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams on Monday declined to order longer voting hours and other changes requested by the NAACP. He did order the elections board to publicize the availability of curbside voting for older or disabled voters and the fact that people in line by 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote.

A hearing on McCain’s lawsuit is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday before Williams.

That lawsuit alleges that ballots for overseas military voters were mailed too late to ensure they are returned by the deadline. Defendants are the chairwoman, vice chairman and executive secretary of the state elections board.

A 1986 federal law requires ballots to be mailed to military voters in foreign countries at least 45 days before the election, which this year would have been Sept. 20. The lawsuit alleges the state didn’t have the ballots printed and sent to local officials by then, meaning they may not have been mailed overseas until October.

Ashley L. Taylor Jr., an attorney for McCain, said tens of thousands of oversees military absentee ballots could be voided unless the deadline is extended.
 
“The last thing you want is to have a service member in Afghanistan or Iraq who received his ballot too late not being able to vote in this election,” Taylor said.

Board Chairwoman Jean Cunningham said late Monday afternoon the board had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.

PHILADELPHIA – A federal judge in Philadelphia is dismissing a lawsuit challenging Barack Obama’s legal qualifications to be president.

He rejected the suit brought by attorney Philip Berg, who alleges that Obama is not a U.S. citizen and therefore is ineligible for the presidency.

Berg claims that Obama is either a citizen of his father’s native Kenya or became a citizen of Indonesia after he moved there as a boy.
 
Obama was born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father. His parents divorced and his mother married an Indonesian man.

Internet-fueled conspiracy theories question whether Obama is a “natural-born citizen” as required by the Constitution for a presidential candidate and whether he lost his citizenship while living abroad.

The judge has ruled that Berg lacks standing to bring the case.

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Republican leaders have filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of a national Democratic group that raises money for state legislative candidates.

An attorney for the Pitt County Republican Party and a voter said they sued Thursday in Pitt Superior Court against the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and a sister organization.
 
They say the DLCC accepts corporate contributions and transfers it to another group, called the DLCC North Carolina Political Action Committee, in violation of state law. The lawsuit also says the national committee raises money unlawfully for the state group.

A spokesman for the DLCC in Washington called the lawsuit a “publicity stunt” that will be dismissed.

The State Board of Elections has been examining the issue.