New leadership takes control of NC Board of Election, Executive Director ousted

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The North Carolina State Board of Elections is under new leadership. The board had its first meeting with appointees on Wednesday.

The change comes after Republican lawmakers won a legal battle last week to have the board under the State Auditor Dave Boliek.

Boliek moved quickly and appointed three Republicans and two Democrats to the board the day after the decision.

During Wednesday's meeting, Sam Hayes was appointed as its Executive Director. Hayes currently serves as General Counsel for the Office of NC Speaker Destin Hall.

The decision ousted Karen Brinson Bell, who has been the Executive Director of the board since 2019, to step down.

NCSBOE Control: How We Got Here

Appeal court judges unanimously granted on Wednesday, April 30, the request of Republican legislative leaders to suspend enforcement of that ruling. If left intact, the decision means provisions otherwise set to take effect Thursday would shift the appointment duties from new Democratic Gov. Josh Stein to GOP State Auditor Dave Boliek, at least temporarily.

The ruling reversed a decision from the previous week when a Judges' panel decided in a 2-1 ruling agreed with Stein's original lawsuit that the power shift, which was passed in the final days of the GOP's veto-proof supermajority, violated the state constitution. The panel was comprised of a Republican and a Democrat judge in Wake County Superior Court; a third judge, a Republican, dissented.

The controversial Senate Bill 382 was passed by Republican Lawmakers before Stein took office. The bill is part of the Helene Recovery Act.

Stein filed an appeal of the ruling to the NC State Supreme Court. Stein calls the lawmakers' decision a "threat to democracy."

SEE ALSO | Republican Jefferson Griffin concedes NC Supreme Court race to Democrat Allison Riggs

New BOE Members

The Republican members, nominated by the chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, are:

• De Luca of Wilmington, former president of the Civitas Institute. De Luca served in the United States Marine Corps for 30 years and retired with the rank of colonel. He is a former member of the State Ethics Commission.

• Robert Rucho of Catawba County, a retired dentist and former state senator of nearly 17 years.

• Stacy "Four" Eggers IV of Boone, managing partner of the Eggers Law Firm, who became a Board member in 2018 and was reappointed in October 2020 and May 2023. He formerly served on the Watauga County Board of Elections.

The Democratic members, nominated by the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, are:

• Jeff Carmon of Snow Hill, a licensed attorney who has served on the State Board since 2019.

• Siobhan O'Duffy Millen of Raleigh, a retired lawyer who served as a chief judge in a Raleigh precinct for 13 years. She has served on the State Board since 2023.

Republicans have sought board changes for years

The board's partisan composition was altered just last week through the state law enacted by Republican lawmakers in December over the veto of then-Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat. It stripped the governor of his appointment powers not only to the state election board, but also to the chairs of county election boards. Republicans are also expected to install new GOP majorities on the local boards next month.

The GOP has tried several times since 2016 to remove the governor's authority to choose members of the election board, whose duties include carrying out campaign finance laws, certifying election results and setting rules on a host of voting administration details.

New Democratic Gov. Josh Stein sued over the law, and some trial judges ruled that it had to be blocked. But the appointment switch took effect after a state Court of Appeals panel ruled the law could still be implemented starting May 1. The executive director is chosen for a two-year term set to begin May 15.

Election leaders praise outgoing director
Brinson Bell received high marks from colleagues for helping administer elections during the pandemic and when a photo identification requirement was carried out in the first general election in 2024.

She also oversaw the effort to hold the presidential election in the state last year after Hurricane Helene laid waste to numerous counties when it struck in September. The storm and subsequent flooding knocked out power and damaged water treatment systems across western North Carolina. Nonetheless, election officials managed to open nearly all of the 80 voting sites initially planned for the hardest hit areas on the first day of early in-person voting, just weeks later.

Some Republican officials complained about long lines at early-vote sites in some counties, and with mixed results lobbied to get more open.

Brinson Bell was selected recently to serve as the incoming president of the National Association of State Election Directors - a position Brinson Bell said she can no longer hold after losing her job.

David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer who now leads the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the GOP's "highly partisan power grab" has "resulted in the removal of one of the most highly respected election officials in the country."

Justin Roebuck, the chief election official in Ottawa County, Michigan, said Brinson Bell's "departure will be a significant loss - not only for North Carolina voters but for the entire election administration community that has benefited from her leadership."

Pandemic litigation built animosity
State Republicans have been unhappy with Brinson Bell going back years. They focused on her role in a legal settlement in 2020. The settlement extended to nine days after the November election the time for mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be received and counted. State law at the time had set the limit at three days.

Brinson Bell defended her actions and those of the board, saying they helped more mail-in ballots get counted after worries about Postal Service delays during the pandemic.

GOP leaders also have criticized the previous board for what they called errors in how election laws were carried out for the 2024 election. It led to litigation and formal protests in last November's race for a state Supreme Court seat that dragged on for months.

After last November's election, Brinson Bell publicly asked that Senate leader Phil Berger -- the state's most powerful Republican elected official -- to retract a comment suggesting that results were being manipulated during the canvassing period to lead to favorable results for Democrats. She said such words could lead to threats against local election workers. Berger declined to withdraw his comments.

Republican chairman says he seeks trust in elections
Francis De Luca, a Republican who chairs the new elections board, said his goal was that "we get things so we have fair elections, make voting easy and make sure we follow the law. And make sure there is trust in the election system."

Republican Donald Trump has won the state each of the three times he has run for president.

Hayes, the incoming election director, has been general counsel to previous Speaker Tim Moore and current Speaker Destin Hall. His career has largely been spent working for state agencies, and he has been highly involved with election-related litigation filed against GOP lawmakers.

While she was not allowed to speak during the meeting, Brinson Bell stayed afterward and addressed the audience and the two Democratic members of the election board, who remained after their GOP colleagues had left.

"We have done this work under incredibly difficult circumstances and in a toxic political environment," she said, adding that she hoped election workers are "supported and rewarded for their work rather than vilified by those who don't like the outcome."

Associated Press writer Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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