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A month before Election Day, two appointed to State Board of Elections

Republicans appointed to replace two who resigned in protest.

Posted Updated

By
Travis Fain
, WRAL statehouse reporter
RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper appointed two Republicans to the State Board of Elections on Tuesday, replacing a pair of members who resigned last month to protest a planned shift in absentee ballot rules.

Former state Sen. Tommy Tucker, who retired from the General Assembly last year, and Carr McLamb, an attorney who's held several jobs in state government, will join the board. That brings the board up to a full complement of five members: three Democrats and two Republicans.

Former Republican members David Black and Ken Raymond resigned Sept. 23 after Republican leaders in the state expressed outrage over a proposed lawsuit settlement both men had voted for. That settlement would have changed the state's absentee ballot rules, allowing people in some cases to vote by mail without getting the witness signature required by law.
The settlement also would have added six days to the due date for absentee ballots, giving the Postal Service more time to deliver ballots postmarked by Election Day. These changes are all on hold while a number of court cases are resolved at both the state and federal levels.

Raymond said in his resignation that the state Attorney General's Office misled him about the settlement, something Attorney General Josh Stein denies. Black was less pointed in his critique but said he misunderstood key elements of the settlement.

The North Carolina Republican Party nominated three people for each seat, and it was up to the governor to pick the two replacements.

McLamb has been an attorney in North Carolina since 2007, according to the Governor's Office, and was previously an assistant general counsel at what is now the Department of Environmental Quality and a deputy secretary at the Department of Transportation. Since 2017, he's been with a utility management company called Envirolink.

Tucker represented Union County in the North Carolina Senate from 2011 to 2019.

Cooper said in a statement announcing the appointments that "elections are a sacred trust in our democracy."

"Our state will hold free, fair elections and follow the law to ensure every North Carolinian who registers can cast their ballot safely and securely," he said. "I appreciate that Mr. Tucker and Mr. McLamb are willing to serve on the board."

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