The new Republican majority on the state Board of Elections in its first meeting voted to replace elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell with Sam Hayes, general counsel to House Speaker Destin Hall.
This is the first state elections board with members appointed by the state Auditor.
Democrats Jeff Carmon and Siobhan Millen, members of the last board, joined the Republican members state Auditor Dave Boliek announced last week: Francis DeLuca, a former president of the conservative Civitas Institute, former state Sen. Robert Rucho, and lawyer Stacy “Four” Eggers. Eggers is also a returning member.
DeLuca won the board chairmanship with a 3-2 vote. Democrats wanted Eggers for chairman.
In the past, a majority of the election board’s members were of the same political party as the governor. After Democrat Josh Stein won the governorship last year, the Republican legislative supermajority passed a law stripping governors of their power to appoint members. That lead to the new majority-Republican elections board.
Republicans had been trying to reduce or eliminate the governor’s elections board appointments for years. Those efforts were rejected by the courts and voters.
Brinson Bell was hired as the state’s top elections administrator during former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s tenure. While the state and local boards won national awards for election administration, Brinson Bell was a target of state Republicans’ criticism.
She took heat from Republican legislators over a lawsuit the board settled concerning absentee ballot deadlines in 2020, even though she told legislators she had nothing to do with the negotiations.
The state GOP sued the Board over the decision to count absentee ballots that voters put in the wrong envelope, and over 225,000 voter registrations the GOP said were not legal because they lacked a partial Social Security number or a driver’s license number. Republicans also objected to instructions from the state board that local boards should not try to do their own signature matching for absentee ballots.
The legislature consistently appropriated less money than the Board of Elections requested for staff and technology.
GOP Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin’s unsuccessful effort to win a seat on the state Supreme Court even though he was behind in the vote count was based on legal arguments that the Board of Elections had misinterpreted state law.
The new NC Board of Elections, with all members appointed by the state Auditor, are sworn in on May 7, 2025. Left to right, Jeff Carmon, Chairman Francis DeLuca, Stacy “Four” Eggers, Siobhan Millen, and Robert Rucho.Political divisions over Brinson Bell’s leadership lasted until the end. Republicans on the board voted to adjourn Wednesday’s meeting rather than allow her to read a statement.
Millen said it was “a shabby way to treat a nationally admired executive director.”
Brinson Bell read her statement after the board adjourned, and Republican board members had left the room.
She said serving as executive director “I know will forever be the greatest honor of my life.”
She noted the hostile conditions elections officials sometimes face. Elections officials are targets of suspicion and threats.
Brinson Bell said she hopes for a return to civility.
“I hope we can get to a place in this country, and especially in this state that I hold so dear, where dedicated, hardworking election workers are supported and rewarded for their work, rather than vilified by those who don’t like the outcome,” she said. “I hope we return to a time when those who lose elections concede defeat rather than trying to tear down the entire election system and erode voter confidence. And I hope we recognize that the conduct of elections is the very core of our democracy and should be properly and consistently funded, regardless of the party or the person in control, so that the voice of the people can be recorded accurately, securely, and fairly.”
Brinson Bell said later she was not referring to Griffin’s effort to throw out votes when she talked about losers conceding.
Carmon read a list of Brinson Bell’s accomplishments, including an elections plan for Helene-devastated counties that resulted in higher voter turnout there than statewide.
“That was your leadership,” he told her.
She ran elections in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and the following year during the COVID-19 pandemic, recruiting thousands of poll workers, Carmon said.
Republicans on the elections board have tended to dislike Sunday voting during early voting periods.
DeLuca filed a federal lawsuit over same-day registration in 2016 when he was Civitas Institute president.
In a brief interview, DeLuca said it was too soon to say what changes Republicans will make, but he wanted “gradual improvement in everything.”
Hayes, who will start his new job as elections director next week, said “it’s far too early to get into that,” when asked about any changes he is looking to make.
“I think we all have the same goal, which is election integrity,” he said during a brief interview in his office in the Legislative Building. “Make it easy to vote, hard to cheat, and I think we’ve accomplished a lot of that here with legislation that I’ve been a part of that I’ve later had to defend in litigation.
“We’ve laid out the blueprint, and that is the law,” he said, “and that’s what I intend to stick to, and take the direction of the Board.”
Hayes said he still has legislative work to do. This is a busy time for the House. It voted on dozens of bills this week to meet a procedural deadline. House budget writers are scheduled to roll out their spending proposals next week.
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