Raleigh, NC (AP) – The Northern Carolina Elections Council ousted its executive director widely respected in a partisan decision on Wednesday which will put the Republicans to control electoral operations in the state of political swing, which includes the certification of the results.
The withdrawal of Karen Brinson Bell, who had held the post For almost six years at a time when the Council had democratic majority, after the Republicans won the authority of appointing members of the electoral council of the Democratic Governor at the end of last year, exceeding a veto while they still had supermajority in the Legislative Assembly. The Republicans gave this power to the elected state auditor, a republican.
Meeting for the first time with its new majority of the GOP, the Caroline Northern State Elections Council agreed in an online party vote to replace Brinson Bell by Sam Hayes, the best lawyer for the republican president of the Chamber. The commission refused to consider its request to speak at the end of the meeting, adjourning instead.
“Although I would have liked to have continued to serve the County Elections Council and the North Carolina voters in this capacity, the Council of State made a different decision,” said Briton Bell after the meeting to those who stay in the public.
Brinson Bell led the board of directors during the voting difficulties of the first pandemic of COVID-19 in 2020 and during the presidential election last year after a devastating hurricane struck the state.
The member of the Democratic Council, Siobhan O'Duffy Millen, told his republican colleagues before the 3-2 vote to hire Hayes that the way they separated from Briton Bell was “a shabby way to treat a director of executive elections admired on a national level”.
Nevertheless, its withdrawal was not surprising, since there is a previous one for a new director to be hired with a dispute majority, and republican legislative leaders have clashed over the years with Brinson Bell. However, the circumstances are extraordinary.
Republicans are looking for changes in advice for years
The Board of Directors The partisan composition has been modified Last week, through the state law, promulgated by republican legislators in December for the veto of Gov at the time. Roy Cooper, a Democrat. He stripped the governor of his powers of appointment not only to the Electoral Council of the State, but also to the chairs of the County Electoral Board. Republicans should also install new GOP majorities on local councils next month.
The GOP has tried several times since 2016 to withdraw the authority of the Governor to choose members of the electoral council, whose functions include the achievement of laws on the financing of the campaign, the certification of the results of the elections and the establishment of the rules on a multitude of details of administration of the vote.
The new Democratic Governor Josh Stein continued the law, and some judges of first instance ruled that it was necessary to block. However, the change of appointment came into force after a state of appeal committee judged that the law could still be implemented from May 1. The executive director is chosen for a two -year term scheduled for May 15.
Electoral leaders rent an outgoing director
Brinson Bell received high notes from his colleagues for helping to administer elections during the pandemic and when a photo identification requirement was carried out during the first general elections in 2024.
She also supervised the effort to hold the presidential election in the state last year after Hurricane Helene Waste in many counties when he struck in September. The storm and subsequent floods have eliminated power and damaged water treatment systems in the west of North Carolina. However, electoral officials managed to open Almost all 80 voting sites initially planned for the hardest affected areas on the first day of Early vote in person, A few weeks later.
Some Republican officials have complained about long lines on anticipated voting sites in certain counties and mixed results have been pressure to open more.
Brinson Bell was recently selected to be the new president of the National Association of State Election Directors – a position that Brinson Bell said she could no longer hold after losing her job.
David Becker, a former lawyer for the United States Ministry of Justice who now directs the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said that the “seizure of the GOP power” had “led to the abolition of one of the most respected electoral officials in the country”.
Justin Roebuck, head of the chief elections of the county of Ottawa, Michigan, said that the departure of Briton Bell would be a significant loss – not only for the voters of North Carolina, but for the entire community of the electoral administration which benefited from its management. “”
Pandemic litigation builds animosity
The state republicans are not satisfied with the years of Brinson Bell. They focused on its role in legal regulations in 2020. The regulation extended nine days after the November elections, the time for the voting ballots by mail was collected by the day of the and counted election day. The law of the state at the time had fixed the limit to three days.
Brinson Bell defended his actions and those of the board of directors, saying that they helped more bulletins by mail to count after concern about delays in postal service During the pandemic.
GOP leaders also criticized the previous council for what they called errors in the way electoral laws were carried out for the 2024 elections. This led to official disputes and demonstrations during the race last November for a Supreme Court of the Supreme Court of the State Court It has dragged for months.
After the election of last November, Brinson Bell publicly asked that the head of the Senate Phil Berger – the most powerful republican elected representative of the state – to withdraw a comment suggesting that the results were manipulated during the period of solicitation to lead to results favorable to the Democrats. She said that such words could lead to threats to local elections. Berger refused to withdraw his comments.
The Republican President says that he is looking for confidence in the elections
Francis de Luca, a Republican who presides over the new election council, said that his goal was that “we get things so that we have fair elections, facilitates the vote and we are ensuring the law. And we ensure that there is confidence in the electoral system. ”
Republican Donald Trump won the state each of the three times he led to the presidency.
Hayes, the incoming electoral director, was a general lawyer for former president Tim Moore and the current speaker Destin Hall. His career was largely devoted to working for state agencies, and was very involved in disputes linked to the elections deposited against the GOP legislators.
Although she was not authorized to speak at the meeting, Brinson Bell remained later and addressed to the public and the two Democratic members of the electoral council, who remained after the departure of their GOP colleagues.
“We have done this work in incredibly difficult circumstances and in a toxic political environment,” she said, adding that she hoped that the elections are “supported and rewarded for their work rather than vilified by those who do not like the result”.
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The writer Associated Press Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report.
