NC elections chief pushes back on 'negligence' allegations in contested race

North Carolina’s elections director is defending her agency against allegations of negligence by Republican legislative leaders as a legal challenge over an unresolved state Supreme Court race crawls through the courts.

Republican Jefferson Griffin trails Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs by 743 votes after multiple recounts. He filed a complaint against the state board after it rejected his contention that about 62,000 early or absentee voters weren’t qualified to vote in the November election. Early and absentee voters tend to be more likely to vote Democratic, elections data shows.

A Wake County trial court judge dismissed Griffin’s complaint this month. Griffin has appealed the decision to the state Court of Appeals.The elections board asked the state Supreme Court Monday to fast-track Griffin’s appeal.

Republican state legislative leaders are backing Griffin’s legal challenge. Senate leader Phil Berger said he thinks it’s appropriate to ask the court to clarify how some state laws are being interpreted.

“The Board of Elections has—whether it's purposeful or just negligence—has done some things that, in a close election, causes people to have questions as to whether or not the outcome is the appropriate outcome,” Berger told reporters Tuesday, “and I think that's very, very dangerous.”

He added: “I think getting these questions answered may hopefully prevent future boards from being as reckless or negligent, whichever it turns out to be.”

Griffin alleges that the State Board of Elections failed to ensure it had all legally required information for most of those voters’ registrations. The challenge also claims that about 5,000 overseas and military voters should have been required to show photo identification, although state law does not specifically require photo ID for those voters.

State elections director Karen Brinson Bell declined to comment on the pending litigation, but pushed back against Berger’s assertion in an interview with WRAL News.

“The state board of elections and the county board of elections are adhering to state law and federal law,” Brinson Bell said. “And I think that's what we need to be mindful of, and ensuring that every eligible voter can cast their ballot and ensure that it's counted well.”

Brinson Bell said Republicans seem to be assuming state elections staff have violated state or federal law, but noted that the federal Help America Vote Act protects voters’ right to register without a driver’s license number, and another federal statute protects ballot access for military and overseas voters.

She also pointed out that more than half of the “incomplete” voter registration records flagged in Griffin’s complaint have been verified as complete. She said there are complexities involving database matching and the digitization of paper records for voters who registered years ago.

“The Board of Elections was not operating under any different rules this election than it had in prior elections,” Brinson Bell said. “Those rules were announced publicly well in advance of elections. People who disagree with those rules are welcome to challenge them in court or even change them through legislation, well in advance of voting, of course. But that’s not what’s happening here. Here, the challenge is being made to those preexisting rules after the results were in. Allowing the rules to be challenged after the results have come in is highly troubling for fair elections.”

The case could inform proposals to tweak elections rules in the future. The elections board is scheduled to meet Friday to consider proposed changes to rules governing how local boards process election petitions.

Late in 2024, state lawmakers passed a law over the veto of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper that took away appointment power for the State Board of Elections from the governor’s office and gave it to the state auditor, Republican Dave Boliek. The new law would also change the majority party on state and local boards from Democratic to Republican.

Cooper and the state’s new governor, Josh Stein, have challenged the law on constitutional grounds, claiming it violates the separation of powers. Republicans say it doesn’t violate the separation of powers because Boliek is a member of the executive branch. No date has been set yet for that trial.

The new law is set to take effect May 1, but Brinson Bell said she has had no communication on the topic with the auditor’s office. She says they’re proceeding with the board’s business.

“We are still the state board of elections as we know it, and so we're doing the job that we know to do,” she said.

A spokesman for the state auditor’s office said the auditor is “internally planning for incoming election responsibilities.”