GOP offers 2 new picks for North Carolina election board

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Republican Party has offered two replacement nominees for the state’s reconstituted elections board that is expected to examine a still-unresolved congressional race.

The move came after questions about whether a new law disqualified two of the party’s original picks.

State GOP Chairman Robin Hayes wrote a letter Saturday to the governor offering new nominees David Black of Concord and Kenneth Raymond of Winston-Salem.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper had said two previous nominees appeared to be disqualified by a state law that prohibits certain “electioneering” activities in the past four years.

One previous nominee began a super PAC in 2018, while another used to lead the conservative Civitas Institute.

Cooper will pick two from a list of four GOP nominees to join three Democrats on a five-member board that will be created Jan. 31.