11:40 a.m. – Leake says the donations from Wilmington businessmen Lanny Wilson and Nick Garrett account for the $9,000 that the Democratic Party has to forfeit.

"We want the candidate to accept responsibility," he said, referring to his call for a change in state campaign finance laws.

Leake says the candidate assembles his campaign team and should be ultimately responsible for how the team operates.

He says he doesn't know if the Easley campaign has $100,000 in its accounts to pay the penalty the elections board assessed. Then he jokingly referred to Easley's fundraising prowess that came out during testimony in the four-day hearing.

"I would hope Gov. Easley could go out and raise the money if needed," he said with a smile.

11:35 a.m. – "I got what I asked for," Easley's attorney, Tommy Hicks, said after the hearing.

Hicks surprised the board Thursday by saying Easley wanted the case turned over to prosecutors so he could clear his name.

"There have been allegations that Gov. Easley did certain things, and we did not do that," he told reporters this morning.

The elections board has limited resources, he says, and a full criminal probe should be able to sort everything out.

Easley cannot be charged with any misdemeanors in the case because too much time has elapsed. Hicks says it's not up to him to determine whether any felony charges could be filed against Easley.

He also says it's up to Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby to decide whether a special prosecutor should handle the case. Willoughby's wife used to work for Easley, and the two lawyers have had a tight relationship for years.

11:20 a.m. – Leake says the hearing might be reconvened in the future to deal with Poole's subpoena.

11:05 a.m. – Leake moves to find that the Easley campaign solicited $9,000 from donors for the Democratic Party that would be earmarked for the campaign. That would mean the party would have to forfeit the money.

No sufficient evidence of other violations against the party, Leake says. The board passes his motion unanimously.

Leake moves that the Easley campaign didn't properly report air travel and should forfeit $60,000 and pay a fine of $40,000 for the cost of the investigation. The board passes it unanimously.

He says there was no evidence of any wrongdoing against former Easley campaign treasurer Dave Horne.

"Sometimes candidates do not exercise significant ownership of a campaign," Leake said.

He says lawmakers should amend state campaign finance laws so that fines and forfeitures can be assessed against candidates when their campaign committees cannot pay up. The board passes the motion unanimously.

Evidence suggests criminal violations by Easley and possibly others, Leake says, so the case should be turned over to prosecutors for an investigation. The board unanimously approves the motion.

11 a.m. – The board returns to announce its decision.

10:35 a.m. – Word is that the elections board is trying to resolve the issue of its subpoena against former Easley aide Ruffin Poole before closing the hearing and announcing its decision.

Poole, who served as Easley's lawyer, convinced a Superior Court judge to quash the subpoena for him to testify in the hearing. He argued it might violate attorney-client privilege, although Easley told the board he had no problem with Poole testifying.

It's been suggested that Poole doesn't want to open his mouth because of any implications his testimony might have in the federal grand jury investigation.

The elections board appealed the judge's ruling, but the Court of Appeals hasn't taken up the case yet.

10:25 a.m. – You just knew 9:45 a.m. was an optimistic estimate for when the board would announce its decision. Forty minutes later, we're still waiting, and the nervous energy in the room is becoming more palpable.

10:05 a.m. – Now, former Democratic Party executive director Scott Falmlen, current executive director Andrew Whalen and the attorneys for the Easley campaign, John Wallace and David Long, have been called out into the hallway. It looks like everybody's getting the heads-up about what's going to come down.

10 a.m. – Elections board Chairman Larry Leake just appeared in a doorway to the hearing room and signaled for Jim Cooney, the lawyer representing the state Democratic Party, to meet him in the hallway.

Easley's lawyer and the two lawyers for his campaign chatting quietly. It's just waiting on another jury for them.

Meanwhile, news reporters are frantically getting set up to announce the board's decision, and the elections board staff calmly attends to paperwork and other details – it's just another day at the office for them.

9:25 a.m. – The State Board of Elections is talking in closed session right now about how to handle allegations of campaign finance laws by former Gov. Mike Easley, his campaign and the state Democratic Party.

During four days of testimony, donors and former campaign staff alleged that Easley took dozens of flights aboard private planes, and the trips were never paid for or noted in campaign finance reports. McQueen Campbell, a longtime supporter, also said that Easley suggested that Campbell bill the campaign for repairs he had done to Easley's house in Raleigh and state the invoice was for travel expenses.

Fayetteville car dealer Bobby Bleecker said he had to pester Easley this year to pay off a GMC Yukon he had provided to the former governor six years ago under a handshake deal in which he collected no money upfront.

Other witnesses said the Easley campaign steered major donors to the Democratic Party with a plan to channel their money back to the campaign to skirt the limits on contributions to campaigns.

Easley spent nearly five hours testifying Wednesday to offer his spin on the charges. He flatly denied Campbell's story that he wanted fraudulent invoices sent to his campaign, and he said he thought the bills for the Yukon and the campaign flights had been paid.

Both he and Democratic Party officials said they had no knowledge of any plan to use donations to the party to circumvent campaign finance laws.

The elections board could close the case with no action, issue fines or reprimands against any or all of the defendants or send its findings to the Wake County District Attorney's Office for a criminal investigation.

Easley's attorney, Tommy Hicks, said late Thursday that the former governor wants a full criminal investigation so he can clear the cloud over his name.

The thing is, he's already got a criminal investigation going on. A federal grand jury is looking into all of these allegations, as well as how Easley's wife landed a high-paying job at N.C. State University, how the couple got a choice waterfront lot in a coastal development at a below-market price and other issues.

WRAL.com will begin live coverage of the elections board's decision at about 9:45 a.m.