Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.
Many have reached out to Senator Krawiec with concerns about the integrity of the election in North Carolina. This blog post gives details about the current makeup of state government and the General Assembly’s powers to address these issues.
I, too, am concerned with how the North Carolina State Board of Elections is handling the election.
While the legislature writes the laws that govern how an election is conducted, the State Board of Elections administers the election. That body is appointed and controlled by Gov. Roy Cooper.
Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director, was handpicked by Gov. Cooper’s political team to lead the agency, and the Board has proven to be as partisan as we feared.
Since Gov. Cooper gained sole control of the Board it has been marred by controversy and turnover, including having several chairs leave the Board in the past two years under clouds of scandal and suspicion.
Director Brinson Bell, after votes had already been cast, secretly negotiated to change the laws of the election with the go-to lawyer for Democrats.
Now, she is preventing the public from knowing the true extent of how many absentee ballots are out there. Prior to Election Day the Board was releasing a cache of important data about early voting and absentee ballots. Now that Election Day is over, Director Brinson Bell has stopped sharing that information and is delaying the release of critical data that should enable the public and press to know the winner of several races in North Carolina.
According to the State Board of Elections, new tracking software allows them to know when ballots were deposited by voters with the U.S. Postal Service. Yet, the Board is not sharing that information with the public.
It is unconscionable that Director Brinson Bell is not being forthcoming with the public about how many absentee ballots haven’t been processed or how many people requested absentee ballots but voted on Election Day.
Today, the General Assembly demanded Director Brinson Bell immediately disclose that information so the public canunderstand the election process. Keeping voters in the dark only sows distrust in the process and that’s completely unacceptable. I assure you the General Assembly will do everything in its power to make sure all legally cast ballots are counted and that Director Brinson Bell is held accountable.
The N.C. Constitution does not allow the legislature to call itself back into session because several Democrats would need to agree to do so. The only other option is for Gov. Cooper to call the legislature back, and I think we all know that’s very unlikely. Nevertheless, we have other means of hold the Board accountable, including subpoena authority, and we will pursue all available means to pursue transparency and accountability.
The General Assembly takes election and voter fraud seriously. In fact, over the past two years we’ve passed laws increasing protections for absentee ballots and penalties for anyone caught committing fraud. If you know of any fraud that has occurred, please contact your district attorney and county Board of Elections so they can investigate it.
Relevant Contacts
Davie County District Attorney’s Office
Forsyth County District Attorney’s Office
Contact Governor Cooper’s Office
Report Election Fraud to President Trump’s Re-election Team
Joyce Krawiec serves in the North Carolina Senate. She represents Davie County and Forsyth County, NC. Christian, wife, mother, small business owner, and conservative.