No one, except for those who would benefit from it, likes to see the rules of a game changed during the middle of the game.

There could be a change-the-rules-in-the-middle-of-the-game effort afoot in regard to the North Carolina Supreme Court. The Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly, seeing its slim majority on the state’s high court disappear in the wake of the Nov. 8 general election, could be considering putting the high court’s makeup in favor of Republicans by adding two seats to the high court and putting Republicans in those seats. Such a move could have significant consequences when it comes to the gubernatorial election and redistricting.

Such action by the General Assembly would be a slap on the face of the democratic process. Setting aside the will of those who voted would be, to quote the News & Observer, “political hackery, rather than ordinary politics.” The Raleigh-based newspaper is right on track.

Two weeks ago, North Carolina voters selected Wake County Superior Court Judge Mike Morgan, a Democrat, over Justice Bob Edmunds, an incumbent who sought re-election. Morgan won by a little more than 9 percent of votes cast. That’s not a particularly close margin.

To be fair, Democrats have tried court-packing the past. In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to pack the U.S. Supreme Court with Democratic justices after the nation’s high court struck down major elements of his New Deal economic recovery plan several times. A confident FDR believed his efforts would prevail because Democrats controlled the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. They declined to change the rules and left the number of Supreme Court seats at nine, although the Constitution does not specify the number of seats on the high court.

It does not behoove the existing Republican administration to obstruct the will of the voters because it does not agree with voters’ decisions. If anything, such action would be that of someone who knows he is losing a game and decides to change the rules in his favor.

Doing so is just plain wrong. North Carolina voters, playing the role of a referee, should throw a penalty flag for “unsportsmanlike conduct.” The penalty: nothing more than letting the will of the voters prevail.