After Lying To Federal Court, NCSBE Executive Director Lies To General Assembly

February 25, 2021
For Immediate Release

Raleigh, NC -  Karen Brinson Bell, Governor Roy Cooper’s handpicked Executive Director of the North Carolina Board of Elections, testified in front of the House Elections Committee and continued her pattern of deception regarding the NCSBE's legal settlement that overturned key provisions of the 2020 Bipartisan Elections Act. Though it is well-established and easy to see by the plain language of the statute and the settlement, Bell strongly declared at the end of her testimony that the collusive settlement “did not change the law."

For those needing a refresher: the General Assembly negotiated and passed the Bipartisan Election Act of 2020, which was signed by Democrat Governor Roy Cooper. Nevertheless, Cooper’s former campaign lawyer Marc Elias sued the state seeking to change rules. Then after hundreds of thousands of votes had been cast, the Democrat-controlled State Board of Elections entered into a collusive settlement that directly nullified the laws passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Cooper.

US District Judge William Osteen blasted this collusive settlement. In his opinion, Osteen blasted Bell for abusing his previous decision in an effort to rewrite state law and misrepresenting the facts to his court.  Yesterday, Bell failed to tell the truth again by falsely claiming the NCSBE collusive settlement did not change the law when the settlement directly contradicted state law by gutting the witness requirement, extending the absentee receipt deadline and allowing unsupervised drop boxes.  

"You’d think that being called out by a federal judge for your dishonesty would have caused a course correction. But instead, Bell followed it up by telling a whopper in front of her supervisory legislative committee,” said NCGOP Communications Director Tim Wigginton. “North Carolinians need to be confident in the integrity of those running our elections, but this is nearly impossible given the actions of Bell and the partisan Democrat majority at the NCSBE.”