Republican election officials resigned after call with lawyer for ‘very unhappy’ NCGOP
Both Republican members of the N.C. State Board of Elections voted Tuesday in favor of proposed changes to mail-in voting rules, then resigned in protest of those rules the next day.
Those resignations, of board members Ken Raymond and David Black, came in the wake of several highly critical press releases from the state’s top Republican politicians. A party spokesman confirmed to The News & Observer that they also came after a phone call with the top lawyer for the state Republican Party to convey that the NC GOP was “very unhappy.”
“They called and spoke with our counsel,” said Tim Wigginton, the N.C. Republican Party’s spokesman, referring to Chief Counsel Philip Thomas. “And afterward they put out their resignation letters.”
On Facebook, Black’s wife wrote that his resignation was “not voluntary.”
Deb Black’s Facebook comment read: “The GOP chairman neglected to mention that these resignations were not voluntary. They were told to resign. Sad times when republicans are firing intelligent and trustworthy republicans.”
Wigginton disputed that — but also said there was no mystery about how party leaders felt about Black and Raymond voting with the election board’s Democratic members to approve a lawsuit settlement that could lead to new, more relaxed absentee voting rules.
“We can’t order anybody to resign,” Wigginton said. “But we did have conversations with him that we were very unhappy.”
‘Politics at its worst’
Efforts to reach Raymond on Friday afternoon weren’t successful. David Black confirmed in an interview Friday that his wife did write the Facebook comment. He also spoke about his time, and occasional frustrations, on the board.
Deb Black went on to question the “true agenda” of the Republican Party in her Facebook post. “A fine example of politics at its worst,” she wrote.
“She posted them,” David Black said. “A lot of what she wrote about is stuff that’s on the surface. I think, the best thing to do is to say that she loves me very much, and I love her very much and I appreciate some of the things she writes and sometimes she gets her hackles up.”
Black noted his wife also wrote that the couple doesn’t always think the same.
“She said we don’t exactly share the same political philosophies but it works out OK,” Black said. “We agree some but sometimes we just agree not to say anything, but I think she felt it was a good time to put in a few good words for me and I appreciate it.”
He said Friday this was not the first time he felt like resigning, but it was the first time he went through with it.
He said his term started with an election-fraud scandal in the 9th Congressional District and included firings and hirings and a new chair for the board.
And to make matters worse, Black said, he would drive more than two hours, from his home in Concord to the state election offices in Raleigh, just to lose on votes.
“It’s frustrating when you’re on the losing end 3-to-2 every time,” Black said, acknowledging he did have some wins and saying he was happy to have served.
Vote by mail settlement
Black and Raymond’s resignations came at around 10 p.m. Wednesday, just more than 24 hours after they joined with the Democrats on the board to give unanimous approval to several proposed changes in the rules around voting by mail.
Since then, Democratic politicians have said the changes — which have yet to be formally approved — would address coronavirus concerns and also make it less likely for legitimate voters to have their votes thrown out. But Republicans say the changes could lead to voter fraud.
“It is inviting folks to do things to game an election,” Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican from Rockingham County, said Friday. “And quite frankly if the election’s not close, it probably won’t make that much difference. But the problem is ... everybody’s talking about how close the election for president is going to be in North Carolina, the election for various other offices, for legislative seats.”
If a judge approves the lawsuit settlement — which will be up for debate in court Oct. 2 — the new rules would make it easier for voters to fix problems with absentee ballots by signing an affidavit to confirm their identity, instead of having to start over from scratch with a new ballot.
The changes would also extend the number of days after the election that mail-in ballots could arrive and still be counted, and would tweak the rules surrounding the process for people to get a mail-in ballot but then drop it off in person, either at their county elections office or during early voting at a polling place.
In the 2018 elections, an investigation by WRAL and ProPublica found, about 6,000 votes out of 104,000 mail-in ballots were thrown out for various reasons. Black voters were about twice as likely as white voters to have their ballots thrown out.
This year, mail-in voting has been significantly more popular with Democrats than Republicans — but not as much with Black voters, who lean heavily Democratic. As of Thursday, Black voters were 21% of the total registered voters in the state, but just 16% of the 220,000 voters who had already turned in an absentee ballot.
Casting doubt on election
The elections board framed the changes to the rules, specifically on dropping of ballots in person, as a way to further limit contact during the coronavirus pandemic. The proposal also say if someone’s ballot is dropped off on their behalf by someone who isn’t a close relative, it won’t necessarily be thrown out.
But Berger said the rule about only voters or their relatives dropping off absentee ballots was put in place by the General Assembly after the 9th district scandal in 2018 involving suspicions of absentee ballot fraud to benefit the Republican candidate, which led to a congressional election having to be redone.
“That’s the thing that I think folks should be most offended by, that what they’re doing is eliminating basic protections that actually provide confidence to the people as to the results of the elections,” Berger said.
His comments came a day after Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he was concerned about the absentee voting changes, and two days after Republican President Donald Trump told reporters he wouldn’t commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he were to lose the election.
Trump has frequently made evidence-free claims of mail-in voting being rife with fraud. In the same remarks about transition of power, he also said that “I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster. We want to get rid of the ballots,” the New York Times reported.
Berger on Friday said he’s concerned that if North Carolina changes its rules, that might in his opinion cast doubt on the vote count here.
“These are the sorts of things that have the ability of creating uncertainty as to whether or not the result was the right result,” he said.
But Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper — who appoints members of the Board of Elections — said on Friday that the proposed changes, in addition to being unanimous, would simply give people assurance that their vote will count.
“Voting is a sacred right, and the state board is working to make it secure and accessible. They are working hard to make sure that people’s legal right to vote is protected during this pandemic,” Cooper told reporters Friday.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published September 25, 2020 at 8:03 PM with the headline "Republican election officials resigned after call with lawyer for ‘very unhappy’ NCGOP."
