The NC Senate plans to question state Board of Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell about "her conduct" and extending the number of days absentee ballots were accepted following the 2020 election. #ncpol #ncga. Want to watch at home? ncleg.gov/LegislativeCal…
The committee is giving the background to the "secret settlement" that extended the number of days the #ncga set to accept absentee ballots. Here's a recap: newsobserver.com/news/politics-… #ncpol
Oh...they have a cool split screen thing going on. I approve.
The first question: "Do you think, Miss Brinson Bell, do you believe that trust in the electoral process is important, or not important, in a democracy?"
They're going pretty rapid fire right now. Fourth question: "Do you think it improves trust or harms trust when the rules of an election are changed after voting begins?"
"The rules needed to be addressed because of the pandemic. A five member bipartisan board unanimously chose to take action on three matters.
When the plaintiffs were seeking considerably more actions including the removal of the witness altogether, prepaid postage, the elimination of the witness requirement. It's more involved than that.
And so what they were working to do is to ensure the least amount of changes in the rules, because we had indication from across this country, that the courts were intervening
and they were making more substantial changes than what the state board, in a unanimous fashion chose to do." -Karen Brinson Bell #ncpol #ncga
Current questioning has turned to who told her about the job, if she's political and if she deleted her Twitter account. Gary Bartlett, not political and she deactivated but did not delete her Twitter account.
They've asked her to provide her tweets and she said her tweets mostly consisted of ranked-choice voting. She is not agreeing to provide the tweets.
She said she does not know the relevance of tweets on an account she no longer uses. She said she stopped using the account before accepting the job.
Sen. Warren Daniel, who is chairing the committee meeting, is reading judicial quotes calling forward concerns about the actions (the settlement) of the state board of elections during the 2020 election. #ncpol #ncga
.@newsobserver covered the back-and-forth lawsuits in state and federal courts last fall ahead of the 2020 Election over the settlement. Here was the final article in that series and should have links to the rest: newsobserver.com/news/politics-… #ncpol #ncleg
Co-chair Senator Paul Newton is taking over questioning. Brinson Bell told her that she believes the board of elections acted within the bounds of the law to settle a lawsuit. And added that the General Assembly was not in session at the time.
Brinson Bell said she has never had contact with @marceelias when asked if he gave her advice on the settlement. #ncpol #ncga
She said she never spoke with @NC_Governor's office about the settlement and she was in the closed session meeting about the settlement was not part of plaintiff discussions on the settlement. #ncpol #ncga
"Were you ever concerned during this process that you were actually changing the law in controverting contravention of the legislature's position?" Newton asked. #ncpol #ncga
"The concern at the time was how do we address a pandemic, and the legislature was not in session, when we needed to take that action, " Brinson Bell said.
"And so that's why I consulted with the Republican leaders, and took the action at that point because it did fall within the temporary rule that we had established, and ultimately within the rule that was already permitted," Bell said. #ncpol #ncga
Sorry I stopped tweeting for a few. Had to multitask on a few things. I'm back.
Latest question: Did @NCAGO or the Board of Elections to agree to the settlement terms?
She said that the board received more requests in the settlement but agreed to the three items in the settlement they agreed to negotiate on.
Sen. Daniel asked if it ever bothered Bell that a candidate, Attorney General Josh Stein," in one of the closest elections in the state was controlling the decisions that were being made that change the election laws after voting began?" #ncpol #ncga
Sen. Kraweic asked how Bell can say that the rules changed but didn't change the law when the rules directly violated the law. "How do you not see that as a change?" #ncpol #ncga
Sen. Kraweic is asking how Bell can say all 5 board members unanimously voted on the settlement if two resigned afterward saying they were misled. #ncpol #ncga
"I don't think that that is accurate," Bell said. She said all five board members were briefed by their attorney in a three hour meeting. All five were exchanging questions and their positions and thoughts were given and they all agreed. #ncpol #ncga
Bell said that The News & Observer reported that one of the board member's wife's said he was bullied off the board and she wishes both men were back on the board because they have her upmost respect. #ncga #ncpol
"I just find that the actions that the board took last fall were quite remarkable," Kraweic said. "I do think you changed election laws...when you change a rule that changes the law, you changed the law."#ncpol #ncga
Kraweic said she absolutely believes that voters lost trust in the system. She is asking if in hindsight Bell could have done things differently so there would be more trust in the voting system in NC. #ncpol #ncga
Bell said in hindsight it was remarkable that the five-member state board of elections and 100 county board of elections did. She said Kellie Harris Hopkins the Beaufort County BOE director worked 453 overtime hours on the election.
Bell just said that some people contracted COVID-19 working the recount election on the Chief justice race.
She's now quoting the NC Department of Health and Human Services report that there were no clusters of COVID-19 because of the election.
Sen. Dan Blue is commending the board of elections for their work on the 2020 election before asking questions.
Blue is the first Democrat to question Bell. He is asking if any judge found that the way the settlement was handled was illegal. "No sir, to my knowledge."
Sen. Chuck Edwards said he, the chairman and millions of North Carolinians would agree that her Twitter account history needs to be released and is relevant. She said she was not prepared and he is now drilling down asking what research she needs to do before releasing the tweets
She said she was not prepared for that line of questioning and Sen. Edwards said in the interest of time he would withdraw his question and move on.
The committee has the room until 3.
I believe a news conference is taking place at 3 in the same room.
They're looking to extend their time in the room now. Sen. Perry said he wants his 30 minutes of questions too, with a laugh.
Sen. Natasha Marcus asked if any ballots were counted that were mailed after election day. Bell: No. She said the plaintiffs asked that accepting ballots after election day would be counted and they would not agree in settlement negotiations. #ncleg #ncga
The U.S. Postal Service sent the letter about delays to getting the ballots to the board of elections in August, after lawmakers set the rules, and the letter was mailed to the wrong person, Bell said.
In most states, the Secretary of State runs the election. North Carolina does not. The postal service mailed the letter there instead of to the board of elections.
Bell said she did not have authority to go against her board's instructions when asked by Marcus if she could have said no to the settlement agreement.
Rabon asked if it ever occurred to have @NC_Governor to call lawmakers back to session.
"I don't believe that's what a settlement negotiations are about, and this was the actions by the State Board.
And I do not believe we broke the law and the courts have held that we did not break the law or the board did not break the law..."
And I do not believe we broke the law and the courts have held that we did not break the law or the board did not break the law..."
"...or in their instruction to me to carry out the settlement decision," Bell said. "Thank you we disagree on that," Rabon said. #ncpol #ncga
Rabon said she does have the right to tell their board that if they're encouraging her to break the law than she has the right to say, "No I will not break the law." Rabon said the buck stopped with Bell. #ncga #ncpol
"We were totally in the dark. And that's improper," Rabon said. He followed up that he is not accusing her.
Rep. Lowe is up now for questions. I'm assuming the House yielded the room because we're past 3.
"It seems like to me a lot of people believed in the system," Lowe said. "and they turned out so I thank you for your work." #ncpol #ncga
Sen. Don Davis is asking a question with the worst ever feedback. Standby while I figure out what he's asking.
My tweet on Sen. Lowe's question dropped off. He asked about voter turnout. 81% Republicans and 75% Democrat. His quote two tweets above was in response to that.
And I called him a Rep. That was my bad. I know he's a senator. Working too fast and Twitter edit doesn't know it's 2021.
Oh. We have lost the room. They're wrapping the meeting mid-answer.
But not without one last lecture. "I do want to suggest from what I've heard about being proud of the record turnout that you have the wrong metric for success," Sen. Newton said.
"Your administration, quite frankly didn't turn votes out. But what your administration did in the secret settlement you entered into eroded confidence after the fact so people are wondering whether their vote counted."
"They voted yes. They came out in record numbers to vote, but you're missing here is that the conduct that you undertook erodes the confidence North Carolinians have in the entire process and in whether their vote counted."
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