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NC Elections Chairman Quits Over Inappropriate Joke

State Board of Elections Chairman Bob Cordle, center, and board member David Black, right, watch a presentation by one of the vendors seeking certification for use in North Carolina elections.
Rusty Jacobs
/
WUNC
State Board of Elections Chairman Bob Cordle, center, and board member David Black, right, watch a presentation by one of the vendors seeking certification for use in North Carolina elections.
State Board of Elections Chairman Bob Cordle, center, and board member David Black, right, watch a presentation by one of the vendors seeking certification for use in North Carolina elections.
Credit Rusty Jacobs / WUNC
/
WUNC
State Board of Elections Chairman Bob Cordle, center, and board member David Black, right, watch a presentation by one of the vendors seeking certification for use in North Carolina elections.

North Carolina's Board of Elections Chairman has resigned after opening a statewide meeting of elections officials with a joke about cows and women who don't want sex. Gov. Roy Cooper accepted Democrat Robert Cordle's resignation on Tuesday.

WRAL reports Wake County Board of Elections member Gerry Cohen called the joke Cordle told Monday "misogynistic and wildly inappropriate." Cordle apologized in his resignation letter.

His departure leaves the board split 2-2 for a key vote Thursday on new elections equipment. The board voted Monday to delay certification until August to consider requiring "human-readable marks on a paper ballot" as a security measure, before backtracking hours later. Cordle's resignation could deadlock the board ahead of fast-approaching elections.

 

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