Did I mention that once North Carolinians in 2024 elected another Democrat, Josh Stein, as governor that the GOP-led General Assembly immediately transferred appointment control of the State Board of Elections from the governor's office to the State Auditor's office? Of course, I did:

Currently, the board's members are appointed by the governor, who is allowed to appoint a 3-2 majority of their own party. That means Democrats have controlled the board since 2017, when Gov. Roy Cooper took office, and would continue to do so throughout Stein's term.

However, a provision tucked into a 132-page disaster relief bill would transfer all appointments to the state auditor, a position that was just won by Republican Dave Boliek after 16 years of control by Democrats.

The bill passed the House 63-46 Tuesday evening, just hours after it was made available to the public.

Now what? Boliek is meddling with local boards of elections to suppress student votes:

Republican members of the Jackson County Board of Elections said they were pressured by party and state leaders to vote against a plan to have a campus-based early voting site at Western Carolina University.

At a meeting Tuesday morning in Sylva, the board voted 3-1 to advance a plan for the early voting site on WCU's campus.

Republican Board Chair Bill Thompson confirmed to the board that he had received word from the state auditor's office about how he should vote.

Democratic Board Member Roy Osborn asked Thompson directly, "Are you getting any input, for example, from the state auditor's office?" Thompson responded, "Yes."

"Are you making that transparent to the whole board?" Osborn asked.

"Yes. They want it to stay off campus," Thompson replied. Throughout the meeting, Thompson expressed that he supported a voting location off campus because of his discussions with state officials.

"I know where everybody's vote is, and I'm probably the lone holdout, well I am the lone holdout and it's pressure from above," he said.

Another Republican member resigned over "the pressure from above." A third Republican member said, "I've been told that if I don't vote a particular way that they will do whatever they have to do to remove me from the board."

And because the vote was not unanimous, by law the State Board of Elections gets to decide. They de-sided with Boliek's office to move the site two miles from campus.

. . .