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NC Elections Board Meets Monday, Could Replace Kim Strach As Director

WUNC
NC Elections Board executive director Kim Strach could be replaced Monday

The NC Board of Elections has called a special meeting Monday in which it plans to appoint a new executive director.

WRAL reported Friday that the current executive director, Kim Strach, is being replaced by the new board's Democratic majority.

Democrat Bob Cordle, the chair of the five-member board, said Friday that Stach is still the executive director. He would not comment on whether she is being replaced, and who the candidates are.

"I can't comment on that now," Cordle said.

The board meets by telephone Monday at 11:30 a.m.

Strach was appointed by an elections board that had been appointed by former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

She led the elections board's investigation into absentee mail ballot fraud in the 9th Congressional District from the November 2018 election. Strach and her staff investigated Bladen County voting irregularities for several months this fall and winter, and held a weeklong hearing in February.

That hearing resulted in the board calling for a new election in the district. That gave Democrat Dan McCready a second chance at winning the seat. He trailed Republican Mark Harris by 905 votes before the board unanimously voted for a new election.

Republican State Re. David Lewis wrote on Twitter Friday that Strach is an "incredible public servant" and said it would be a mistake for Cooper's board to remove her for "purely political reasons."

The governor appoints board members from a list of nominees made by the state Democratic and Republican parties.

Before Strach, the previous elections board executive director was Gary Bartlett, who held the job from 1993 to 2013.

Steve Harrison is WFAE's politics and government reporter. Prior to joining WFAE, Steve worked at the Charlotte Observer, where he started on the business desk, then covered politics extensively as the Observer’s lead city government reporter. Steve also spent 10 years with the Miami Herald. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Sporting News and Sports Illustrated.