CNN  — 

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina on Tuesday enacted major changes to the state’s election laws, overriding vetoes by the state’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who has criticized the measures as a “threat to our democracy.”

The new laws will change the makeup of state and local election boards, reduce the time to return mail-in ballots and give new powers to partisan poll watchers.

Under the changes, election boards will be evenly divided by party – a move critics say could lead to deadlocks in deciding early voting locations and in certifying results in next year’s elections.

Voting rights groups have threatened legal action.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.