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Elections Board Member Who Helped Spur Investigation Won't Return

WFDD/NEAL CHARNOFF

Former state elections board chairman Josh Malcolm, who indirectly sparked an election fraud investigation, said Thursday he will not serve on a new board. 

In November, then vice-chair Malcolm expressed concerns over what he called “unfortunate activities” in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District. The bipartisan board eventually declined to certify the election of Republican Mark Harris, whose contest against Democrat Dan McCready remains unresolved. An investigation into absentee ballot fraud is underway.

The elections board was dissolved because of a separate long-running case, and a new five-member panel is expected to be named by Gov. Roy Cooper at the end of January.

Malcolm, a Robeson County Democrat, tells The News and Observer that he does not want to be considered for the new board, but that he was honored by his previous appointment.

Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the state GOP responded by saying “the people of North Carolina are certainly better without him on the board.”

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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