The election director in North Carolina, a key swing state, is ousted after a Republican power play

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

The election director in North Carolina, a key swing state, is ousted after a Republican power play

By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Updated 6:44 PM EDT, May 7, 2025

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina elections board ousted its widely respected executive director Wednesday in a partisan move that will put Republicans in control of election operations in the political swing state, which includes the certification of results.

The removal of Karen Brinson Bell, who had held the job for nearly six years during a time when the board had Democratic majorities, came after Republicans took away the authority to appoint election board members from the Democratic governor late last year, overriding a veto while they still held a supermajority in the legislature. GOP legislators handed that power to the elected state auditor, a Republican.

Meeting for the first time with its new GOP majority, the North Carolina State Board of Elections agreed in a party-line vote to replace Brinson Bell with Sam Hayes, the top lawyer for the Republican House speaker. The board declined to consider her request to speak at the end of the meeting, adjourning instead.

“While I would have liked to have continued to serve the county boards of elections and the voters of North Carolina in this capacity, the state board has made a different decision,” Brinson Bell said after the meeting to those remaining in the audience.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-election-board-director-republicans-6222e773410c5edf4941ed31f3ff54ca