Meeting for the first time with its new GOP majority, the North Carolina State Board of Elections agreed in a party-line vote to replace Brinson Bell with Sam Hayes, the top lawyer for the Republican House speaker. The board declined to consider her request to speak at the end of the meeting, adjourning instead.

In its first meeting Wednesday, the new Republican majority on the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted to replace the agency’s longtime director with a lawyer who worked for state Republican leaders.

The Republican challenger for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat conceded last November's election on Wednesday to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs, two days after a federal judge ruled that potentially thousands of disputed ballots challenged by Jefferson Griffin must remain in the final tally.