Why the State Board of Elections director needed to go

The problem wasn’t partisanship or effort — it was a fundamental misunderstanding of the role

I believe that we all need grace, especially in trying times, so let’s start with lots of caveats.

Karen Brinson Bell just lost her job as executive director of the State Board of Elections in a very public and political way. In a six-year tenure, she led the board through a pandemic, multiple hurricanes, and nonstop scrutiny from both sides. She worked hard. She clearly believed in what she was doing, and her response to Hurricane Helene was particularly admirable.

So she should’ve been allowed to give a formal farewell speech. That would’ve been the right thing to do.

But if you listen to her new interview on Tim Boyum’s Tying It Together podcast, you quickly understand why it was time for her to leave.

It’s not a matter of integrity, but of philosophy. Brinson Bell didn’t see herself as a neutral administrator. She saw herself as a moral agent, a Wilsonian progressive in a time that calls for strict constructionism.

In a lot of jobs, that is a tremendous asset. Just not this one.