Thread by @APDillon_

Hearing featuring NCSBE Exec. Dir. about to start

Here's the NC Dem Party press release, which bizarrely switches to focusing on @CawthornforNC, who was not in office when the consent agreement occurred.
#ncpol 1/2

The last part of the NCDP statement, still trying to tie Cawthorn to the agreement Brinson Bell entered into.
SB 326 doesn't prevent collection after election day, but does trim the 3 day acceptance period after election day.
#ncpol #ncga

Here's the link to the committee hearing, which just started:
ncleg.gov/LegislativeCal…

#ncga #ncpol

Audio dropped out for a while but it is back now.

Here's the committee page.
Sen. Newton is now making opening remarks, running down the events of the 2020 election.
Says Brinson Bell was secretly negotiating with Dem lawyer Mark Elias.
#ncga

Backstory and announcement of today's hearing in this thread

https://twitter.com/APDillon_/status/1374359691892035597

Newton: Mult federal judges noted that the secret agreement changed state law after the election process had started

#ncpol #ncga

Newton is reading some of the comments by the judges about the secret agreement. Some of these were included in yesterday's press release:
#ncga

Sen. Warren Daniel made a few remarks before Brinson Bell began her remarks.
Bell runs down election stats from the 2020 election.

Q: Do you think it harms or improves trust if the rules of the election are changed after an election begins?

Brinson Bell maintains she didn't change any rules.

Brinson Bell says people didn't trust the post office during the 2020 election.

Brinson Bell said they were working for the "least amount of changes to the rules."

How did you learn about the exec director position?
Bell lists her past employment history with elections.

Who specifically mentioned it to you?
Bell: The past director.

Can you name him?
Bell: Gary Bartlett

Are you partison/non partisan?
Bell: I am not partisan.

Sen Daniel asks if Bell has a Twitter account.
She said no.

He asked if she deleted it
She said she deactivated in May of 2019

Will you share with the committee all of your tweets?
Bell said she has to consider whether that's appropriate for her position.

Will you release your tweets to the committee?
Bell: I don't think it's relevant
Then adds she no longer has the account, which contradicts the deactivation statement she made.
Asked again if her tweets were political,
"Why would my personal social media accounts be a concern?"

Recap: The committee wants to see Bell's past tweets. Bell doesn't want to turn them over.

Sen. Daniel reads statements by SCOTUS Justice Gorsuch and other judges admonishing the consent agreement.
Asks Bell why the public should trust her.

Bell said the agreement went through a series of court decisions.

Bell points to the board's unanimous agreement "on three procedures" to support moving forward with the consent agreement.

It's worth mentioning at this point that two members of the board of elections resigned over that vote - they said the Board and AG Stein hid details from them, including another court previously rejecting some of the concessions

nsjonline.com/article/2020/0…

Newton now questioning - 'Are you the arbiter of who gets to change the law?'

Bell said they were within the law to settle lawsuits, especially during a pandemic and the NCGA was not in session.

For those wondering what the secret agreement altered, Sen. Berger summarized it last year. Here's the run down:

Newton: Were you part of the substantive part of the discussions around the settlement.

Bell said she was part of the discussions, but not with any of the plaintiffs.
She talked with Swain Wood, of the Attorney General's office.

Bell is asked if she talked with the governor's office and she said she never spoke with anyone from Cooper's office.

Newton asks Bell to elaborate on why she went before the rules board to ask for an expanded definition of natural disaster.

Bell said they were concerned about coronavirus and whether they might have to postpone an election; she's describing the 8 week window around the congressional primary I believe.

Newton now asking about the change to the cure provision, elimination of witness signature. Judges said that represented a change in law. Asks Bell if she agrees it was a change in law.

Bell refers to going in front of Judge Osteen and that there was not enough uniformity across the state on that cure process, such as numbered memo which Bell used throughout 2020 to issue orders to county boards.

Newton says he finds it hard to believe Judge Osteen is pleased with Bell's actions, quotes Osteen's own ruling about the elimination of the witness requirement.

Newton: How long had voting been underway when you began perfecting the terms of your settlement?

Bell says Sept. 2nd that there were conversations being had then and days before that

Newton presses her on the date, mentions activity with Marc Elias on Sept. 22
Bell said she'd have to check the calendar to see what meetings had gone on

Newton: 3 weeks before the Marc Elias settlement, you were sued by a group representing blind people but you rejected trying to make changes for them but would make ones for a democratic super lawyer?

Bell doesn't answer the question; says they are still dealing with the "visually impair case."

Bell goes on a long explanation during which she said they were not violating the voting rights & privacy of the visually impaired.

Newton redirects 3 weeks into voting you wouldn't make changes for the blind but 18 days into voting you would make changes for Marc Elias.

Bell maintains they did not ignore the blind voters, that they were all able to vote absentee. Said their case didn't have interruption or security concerns.

Sen. Daniel mentions N&O article on fixing voting errors; last paragraph notes that the board directed Bell to negotiate settlements. At that time there were 8 active suits.

Bell says the board released those closed-door meeting minutes. Said their attorneys and NC AG office's attorneys advised them.

Daniel: The AG's litigators developed the agreement absent input from the board?

Bell: They were aware of what they were agreeing to

Daniel: When did you realize NCGA was being kept in the dark.

Bell: I was not aware they were in the dark. That is not my concern.

Daniel: You don't deny the NCGA only found out when it was settled by the court? When did you learn of it?

Bell: I don't recall. It's not something I would be concerned about.

Bell says she was too busy administering CARES Act funds, she let the attorneys do their jobs.

Daniel: Do you think it was appropriate to keep NCGA in the dark?
Bell doesn't seem to care they were.

Bell said their attorneys were representing their board and she has no idea about the NCGA's attorneys.

Daniel: Who decided to agree to the terms? Stein or the Board?

Bell: There were 8 cases. (she is now describing them)

Bell said they boiled it down to 3 items they were willing to negotiate.

Newton says he finds it interesting that Bell has no problem the NCGA was kept in the dark.

Newton: Is it your view that your settlement binds this legislature?

Bell: I don't know.
Says she think it was the judge who did that.

Daniel brings up Stein's reelection being very close, that candidate was controlling the conditions of the election after voting had begun. Did that bother you?

Bell: I had no contact with Stein.
We were not talking directly with Stein. We were represented by the individuals designated in state law.

Daniel: Do you know what attorney represented you?
Bell: Yes
Daniel: Did you know he's the personal counsel for AG Stein?
Bell indicates she might have known that.

Bell is asked about the witness requirement again. She said it did not remove the requirement but instead "gave clarity" to the witness requirement.

This is not true. The agreement sought to remove the witness signature.

Bell: This is why I don't see this as changes to the law. We were dealing with an unprecedented situation.

Sen. Krawiec brings up the resignation of two of the State Board Members after the vote on the secret agreement items.

Bell says they knew what they were voting on and were given information. The board deliberated for three hours.

Bell says one of the wives of the members who resigned said on social media he was 'forced to resign'.

The board member denied that claim.

Sen. Krawiec reads part of one of the resignation letters, detailing information that was either misleading or withheld prior to the vote.

Read the resignation letters & the story here:
nsjonline.com/article/2020/0…

Sen. Krawiec: So are you telling me Mr. Raymond is wrong and he wasn't misled?
Bell: It's not for me to say, he was presented information he needed.

Sen. Krawiec: I find the board's actions last fall remarkable. I think you did change the law. When you change the rule that changes the law, you changed the law itself.

Krawiec: This body is where the laws are made and the laws are changed.

Krawiec: Voters do not have trust in the system. Hindsight, would it have been better to handle things in a different manner?

Bell: In hindsight, I think it's remarkable what the five-member board of elections did. What boards of election across the state did.

Says the pandemic circumstances make their work last year a point of pride.

Note, she is not answering the question.

Bell: We had no ballots cast after election day.
The belief there was a conspiracy to benefit democrats is false, more Repubs cast votes than Dems

Bell goes on to tout 'no clusters of COVID' associated with ballot work.

Krawiec: I agree there was a great effort by election workers.
Maintains the changes she made with the secret agreement were an attempt to usurp laws enacted by NCGA.

Sen. Blue recognized to ask questions.

Blue seems to contend the "context" under which the rule changes are made is the important point, not that those changes usurped the laws on the books.

Bell agrees. This was an unprecedented election, pandemic, other states were doing it.

Bell repeats a high rate of absentee mail use and that people did not trust the post office to deliver their mail.

Bell brings up the closed-door meeting minutes again.

s3.amazonaws.com/dl.ncsbe.gov/S…

Sen. Blue keeps characterizing putting Bell's actions entering into the agreement as "contextualizing."

Going back to the closed-door meeting minutes, the NCDOJ (Swain Wood) was the lead in much of the deliberations & had delivered a detailed litigation memo. That memo has not been brought up today.

https://twitter.com/APDillon_/status/1374430686665269248

Sen. Edwards: We have heard grave concerns from citizens about the way things have gone during the election.
He goes back to Bell's tweets, "it's the opinion of millions of NCians that those would be relevant."

Sen. Edwards: Would you be willing to release those tweets.
Bell: I came today to address the 2020 election. Doesn't think those are relevant.

Sen. Edwards: Is that no?
Bell: Repeats previous statement.
Sen. Edwards: I'll take that as a no.

Edwards brings up the Cure memo. Do you recall the number?
Bell: I believe it's 2020-19, but I am not certain. We issued 32 last year.

Sen. Perry: Percentage impacted by Cure process?
Bell: .008% might be another zero in there.
Perry: Seems small percentage of total, but doesn't speak to how impactful it could be. Gives example of close Chief Justice race.

Perry: This is material. A change of that nature can impact things statewide.

Perry says past elections directors respected the NCGA and the laws they made.

Perry says nothing about the agreement was ok.
Uses his 3 daughters as an example similar to the consent agreement; what if 2 of my daughter got together and cut the third out?

Bell has no response to Perry's remarks.

Sen. Marcus remarks that all the questions have mainly been from Republicans.

There are only 16 people on this committee & republicans are the majority as they are in the House overall.

Marcus says Sen. Krawiec thinks we should only count ballots on election day and that anything else is 'nefarious'.

Bell goes through a long-winded recounting of how/when different types of ballots are processed.

Marcus is trying to imply that shoring up absentee ballot acceptance/post marked dates is a bad idea.

Marcus: Could you have refused the settlement and tried to do something another way?
Bell: That would not have been in my authority.

Bell earlier said the Board granted her the authority to negotiate the settlement.

Marcus implies Republicans don't want to accept the outcome of the election.

Bell is asked again about changing the law with her settlement agreement. She denies again she changed the law.

Bell: The state board acted within the law because they had settlement powers granted to them by the legislature.

Sen. Ford: You haven't followed the law. Why shouldn't we demand your resignation?

Bell: I have done my job as appointed

Sen. Rabon: I don't think you just changed the law, I think you broke the law.

Bell: I did not break the law, the board did not break the law, we had the right to do a settlement agreement

Rabon: You said in August you knew there was going to be a problem; why didn't you call the legislature in? You made no efforts to do that. Why not?

Rabon: You did remarkable things, but as bright as you are you, you didn't try to fix things. You broke the law.

Rabon: The buck stops with you, Ms. Brinson Bell.
You had every right to say this is not the right thing. The legislature should be involved. But we were kept in the dark.

Rabon: I think it's remarkable you never thought of including us in your decision.

Sen. Lowe applauds Bell's work as did other Dem Sens. Blue and Marcus.
Asks Bell to repeat turnout for Republicans and Democrats.

Sen. Davis via Webex thanks Bell, asks about historic turnout.
Bell: Largest state turnout in history.

Davis' audio is very echoey.

Davis basically asks Bell to recount everything she's previously said about how voting was handled during the 2020 election related to the pandemic.

The committee has to vacate the room, so Daniel had to interrupt Bell's speech about all the steps she took during the 2020 election to make it safe.

Newton: You had the wrong metric for success.
You didn't turn out votes. You eroded confidence after the fact.

Also said that 'what you are missing is your conduct erodes NCians trust in the process.'

The meeting is over now, but I expect this is not the last time this committee will take up this issue.

#ncga