North Carolina elections chief wants senator to take back comment about vote manipulation

The North Carolina State Board of Elections’ top administrator wants a powerful legislator to retract a comment that he made suggesting this month’s results were being manipulated. Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell wrote to Senate leader on Thursday, the day after he spoke to reporters. Senate leader Phil Berger sounded unhappy with a lengthy post-election counting process and inferred it was being used to help change a result. Brinson Bell said Berger’s accusation “has absolutely no basis in fact" and that county election boards were duty-bound to examine provisional and absentee ballots. A Republican initially led a state Supreme Court race on election night, but the Democrat is now ahead while there is a recount.