@NCSBE Board Chair Damon Circosta opening the meeting, asking for conflicts of interest.

Stacy Eggers, R-member, has an aunt who ran unopposed for a district court judicial seat. As she was unopposed, that is not seen as a conflict, and Eggers can vote to certify that race.

Circosta turned the mic over to state elections director, Karen Brinson Bell, who is presenting information on the election, including the audits that were done.

Brinson Bell listing the things that made this a unprecedented election. NC's first Super Tuesday primary, which happened on the same day COVID was confirmed in NC. Website upgrade for NCSBE, online tracking/request for ABM ballots & poll worker recruitment...

Brinson Bell and Circosta both have rhetorical styles where they wax poetic about elections. This is a listing of all of the things elections staff had to do to make the election go, combined w/ a lot of emphasis and some sentiment.

I agree with both of them that it's remarkable what the state and county elections staff pulled off.

If I was an editor and someone brought me all this info, I'd cut it down, and I'm famously long-winded.

We'll be here a bit... singing praises step by step through the election.

I wonder if we're going to see how much this unprecedented election cost.

If I had to guess, I'd bet it was unprecedented.

I also don't think counties have added it all up yet.

Despite having record turnout, 2020 had among the lowest Election Day turnout on record. Way more people voted early or absentee by mail this year than ever before. Total turnout - 75.4% turnout.

Brinson Bell references a recent @NCCivitas poll saying 68% of NCians think the election was carried off fairly.

I wonder what that number would have been if Trump lost, given that national polls have shown that Trump supporters are the most likely to distrust elctn resuts?

Having faith only in an election you won is a problem, even if polls don't show that yet.

The Republican party, far more than Democrats, made organized, misleading public statements to undermine trust in voting methods (by-mail).

Brinson Bell now talking about all the audits the state board did to prepare for certification of the results. This is on top of the audits that are done by each county.

There was a lot of contention about voter history this year. Lots of people were concerned that their voter history did not show up on the voter lookup tool immediately after the election. This is never done quickly. There are still 25 counties that haven't finished vtr history

BTW, for that 32% of people in NC who did not think the election was run fairly, check this thread from @dfreelon.

TL;DR, those people won't be convinced the election was done well, no matter the evidence presented. 'tis a problem. https://twitter.com/dfreelon/status/1331259439702290433?s=20

My favorite audit by the state is the "close contest audit," which is really just a combo of all the other audits. It adds up all the possible variances and asks if they're enough to potentially change the outcome of any race. The answer is no for races canvassed in this mtg.