State Board of Elections director Karen Brinson Bell on important changes coming to NC elections

A trio of rulings handed down by the Republican majority of the North Carolina Supreme Court will soon bring some big and important changes to the state’s elections. Not only will a photo ID now be required for all who cast ballots – even by mail – but thousands of formerly incarcerated people who regained the right to vote last year will now be removed from the voter rolls once again.

Add to this that the legislature was given a greenlight to gerrymander legislative and congressional districts in another round of redistricting and it’s clear that elections will look very different and soon.

At such a time, you’d think legislators would be assuring that election officials have all the resources they need to handle and manage these changes, but as NC Newsline learned last week in a special extended conversation with the executive director of the State Board of Elections, Karen Brinson Bell, that’s something about which there’s great uncertainty. Brinson Bell discusses the need for additional resources and the work already underway to ensure fair and safe elections as we approach the 2023 municipal elections and the much anticipated contests of 2024.