Cooper Names Final Elections Board Member

Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday chose the leader of a nonprofit foundation to fill out the new state elections and ethics board.

Cooper appointed Damon Circosta, executive director of the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, to become the board's ninth and final member.

The Democratic governor late last week appointed eight of the members — four Democrats and four Republicans — from among six nominations apiece from the two parties.

The new state law creating the board required the eight members to meet and nominate two people, from whom Cooper would select one as the ninth board member. The law required the nominees to be registered with neither major party.

After several deadlocked 4-4 votes Wednesday morning on other nominee pairings and a one-week delay, the eight agreed unanimously to nominate Circosta and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley Mitchell. Both are registered unaffiliated voters. The final member could signal the tilt of the board until a new slate of members is appointed next year.

Circosta used to work for the North Carolina Center for Voter Education, which pushed for election and redistricting reforms. He also worked previously for Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and for Barack Obama's election in 2008.