The North Carolina State Board of Elections reprimanded a county election official for spreading “false and misleading statements” to state lawmakers and advocating for Republicans to win the 2024 elections.
Linda Rebuck, a Republican member of the Henderson County Board of Elections, sent an email to Republican state lawmakers last month in which she warned of a “ concerted effort to turn Henderson County blue” via improper verification of absentee and new voter applications.
“I want to strongly state my belief that if you do not intervene immediately either legislatively or legally, we are going to lose NC to the Dems in November which will likely mean we lose the country,” Rebuck wrote. “The responsibility will be yours, one way or the other.”
In a letter responding to Rebuck, the state board’s executive director, Karen Brinson Bell, said her statements, which had been forwarded to a wide audience, were “sensationalistic and inflammatory and will undermine voter confidence with no facts to back them up.”
Brinson Bell also noted that state law prohibits members of election boards from publicly supporting any candidate.
“Whether or not the statements violate these provisions, it undermines the public’s confidence in the fair administration of elections if their elections officials are widely communicating their desire for a particular outcome in an election they oversee,” she wrote.
Rebuck did not respond to an email from The News & Observer requesting comment.
In her response to Rebuck’s email, Brinson Bell noted that she had made several incorrect statements about voter verification.
Rebuck claimed that the state was instructing county officials to register voters who did not provide the proper identification information, such as a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
Brinson Bell noted that in statewide training and guidance emails, the state board explicitly told county officials not to accept any registrations from new voters who did not include this identification and did not check the box to indicate that they do not possess either of those forms of identification.
If a registrant does check the box saying they have neither identification number, then they will be sent a “request for identification” letter and be required to show an ID before they vote.
Rebuck’s email also noted concerns about preventing noncitizens from voting. She said the state board had failed to implement a new law requiring clerks of Superior Court to provide lists of people who had been excused from jury duty for indicating they are noncitizens.
The North Carolina Republican Party and the Republican National Committee have also sued over this matter .
Brinson Bell responded that this allegation was false, and the clerks have already provided those lists. The Administrative Office of the Courts confirmed that the law has been implemented.
Nine total registrants have been identified through that process and the board is contacting them to encourage them to cancel their registration.
The National Voter Registration Act prohibits the board from outright removing the registrants from the rolls within 90 days of an election.
Brinson Bell forwarded her letter to the full board as well as all of the state’s county election directors.
“We hope that in the future you will reach out to us should you need clarification to avoid the potential spread of false or misleading information, which undermines our common goals of administering elections according to the law and promoting confidence in our elections,” she said.
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