The North Carolina State Board of Elections' top administrator asked a powerful legislator on Thursday to retract a comment that he made suggesting this month's results were being manipulated, saying it could lead to threats against local election workers.
"You are a top leader of our state government. What you say matters," Karen Brinson Bell, the board's executive director, wrote state Senate leader Phil Berger in response to his words from Wednesday. "When you tell your fellow citizens that an election is being conducted fraudulently, they listen."
Berger, a Republican, was speaking to reporters following the final passage of a bill that in part would shift next year the authority to appoint the State Board of Elections from the governor to the state auditor. The new governor in 2025 will remain a Democrat in Josh Stein, while the next auditor will be a Republican. Changes also would likely filter down to county elections boards.
Republicans have expressed frustration about a state Supreme Court race where GOP candidate Jefferson Griffin was leading on election night. But a 10,000-vote deficit for Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs was eliminated as county boards added qualifying provisional and absentee ballots to the totals. Griffin, now trailing, asked for a recount now underway and has filed protests.
Without mentioning the court race by name or specifics of electoral influence, Berger told reporters that "we're seeing played out at this point another episode of 'Count Until Somebody You Want to Win Wins.'"
