NCSBE to swear in new members, elect chair

In a meeting scheduled for Wednesday at noon, the State Board of Elections is expected to swear in three new members for four-year terms and elect a chairman.

The meeting follows an announcement on Monday from Gov. Roy Cooper making his nominations to the state board. The NCSBE is the state agency that administers elections in North Carolina, working with 100 county boards. The state board also oversees campaign finance disclosure and compliance.

On Cooper’s list, just two members were reappointed, with three new members taking a seat. Two of the three were nominated by the N.C. Democratic Party and one new member was nominated by the state Republican Party. The two members carrying over from the previous state board are Stacy Clyde “Four” Eggers IV and T. Jefferson Carmon III. Departing board members are chairman Damon Circosta, a Democrat and executive director of the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, Republican Tommy Tucker, and Democrat Stella Anderson.

New to the NCSBE and nominated by the NC Republican Party, Kevin Neil Lewis is a Rocky Mount attorney with Valentine Law Firm, who has served on the Nash County Board of Elections since 2007. He chaired the Nash board from 2013-2019.

Joining the State Board of Elections for Democrats is Alan S. Hirsch of Chapel Hill, the CEO of Biorg, president of the North Carolina Healthcare Quality Alliance, former N.C. deputy attorney general and policy adviser under former Gov. Mike Easley, and former chair of Cooper’s DHHS transition team. Lawyer Siobhan Millen, of Raleigh, was also nominated by Cooper and N.C. Democrats. She is a Democrat get-out-the-vote activist who filed an action in a lawsuit against the Wake County Board of Elections opposing purging of voter rolls. She’s led voter registration drives, starting with the Obama campaigns, and now the League of Women Voters of Wake County, and works with groups that register voters detained in Wake County jails and at naturalization ceremonies.

Carmon, of Raleigh, has served on the Board since 2019. Carmon is counsel and associate director of legal and compliance at Mycovia Pharmaceuticals Inc. He was nominated by the NCDP.

Eggers, of Boone, was nominated by the NCGOP and has served on the state board since 2020. Eggers is managing partner of Eggers Law Firm.

Under a state law passed in 2018, the governor has appointment power to the NCSBE, but takes nominations from the Republican and Democratic state parties. No more than three members can be from the same party.

In recent weeks, the state board has announced policies to comply with decisions from the N.C. Supreme Court that require felons to complete their sentence before having voting rights re-instated, and that voter ID will be in effect for 2023 municipal elections this fall.

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