The executive director of North Carolina’s elections board pleaded with candidates to accept the results of the election at a news conference Monday.
Karen Brinson Bell said this year her state has done more planning for possible threats than in past elections.
“I would just make a plea to the candidates and election officials: Have a peaceful transition of power. Accept the results. Concede defeat, when necessary,”Brinson Bell said, adding that the election is administered by bipartisan community members who have sworn oaths to ensure that results are determined accurately.
Brinson Bell said some election offices have installed panic buttons and further secured entrances ahead of the election.
“I’ve worked in elections for nearly 19 years now, and post-election hostility, threats, harassment were not something that we planned for, for most of my career, but it certainly has become the case,” she said.
She also referenced harassment and threats officials in Georgia, Arizona and Michigan and other battleground states faced after the 2020 election.
“We have tried to learn from them, understand the relationships that we need to have with law enforcement,” Brinson Bell said. “What we’ve done is to prepare as best we can and consider it more of an insurance policy that we hope we never have to exercise.”
Even with that added security, Brinson Bell said the state remains committed to transparency, and she invited people with questions to come and observe checks on tabulator systems and canvass meetings where results are presented to board members.
“Understand why we are able to certify these elections,” she said.