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The Republican-controlled State Board of Elections Wednesday chose Kim Strach, a veteran campaign investigator, to be the elections board director.

The board chose Strach to replace Gary Bartlett who had been elections director for the past 20 years.

The vote was 3-2 along party-lines, with the Democrats saying they had not time to examine Strach's credentials and thought there should be a longer transition for Bartlett, who was appointed by Democrats. The move came just several days after Republican Gov. Pat McCrory named a new elections board, a move that typically occurs when there is a change in political parties.

Strach had worked for the state elections campaign staff the past 13 where she was heavily involved in a wide-range of investigations of such political figures as former House Speaker Jim Black, former Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps, former state Reps. Thomas Wright and Michael Decker and former Governors Mike Easley and Bev Perdue. All but Decker are Democrats.

Pat McCrory's campaign did not violate campaign finance laws when it came to disclosing trips to the state by big GOP luminaries, a state investigation found.

Democrat Walter Dalton's campaign alleged that a flight taken by S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley to a McCrory campaign event was not a corporate contribution. Donors Ralph and Linda Huff reimbursed the plan's owner for the flight, the State Board of Elections reported Thursday.

State officials dismissed a Republican campaign finance complaint filed days before the November election that alleged illegal collusion between Democrats Walter Dalton and Bev Perdue.

The state Republican Party said it identified 65 donors who received refunds from Perdue's campaign committee who later made contributions to Dalton, the Democratic candidate for governor. But in a letter dated Tuesday, the State Board of Elections said all 65 donations identified as suspect were legitimate.

"Our office found no campaign finance violations ... for these contributions and as such this matter is considered resolved," the letter states.

The race for lieutenant governor is frozen until Nov. 16, when local boards of election roll in provisional votes to those already counted and come up with final tallies.

Democratic candidate Linda Coleman trails Republican Dan Forest in the unofficial tally by about 11,000 votes. She'll wait until the counties add up all the votes before she decides whether to ask for a recount, said her campaign spokesman Micah Beasley. "We anticipate at the very least the margin will be cut significantly," he said.

The State Board of Elections asked the counties to forward all the vote totals to Raleigh by Monday, Nov. 19.

Election Day 2012 isn’t even here yet, but some U.S. senators are already out planning fundraisers to pay for their 2014 re-election campaigns. Including North Carolina’s Kay Hagan.

The Washington Post reported last week that Democrat Hagan is having a “Holiday Reception in support of her re-election” on Dec. 11 at Fiola on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. Political action committees can attend by ponying up $5,000, according to the Post.

An attorney for Americans for Prosperity is asking the State Board of Elections to dismiss outright a request for information regarding its recent television advertisements, calling it harassment.

Bob Hall with Democracy North Carolina, a liberal advocacy group, asked the state's election agency to clarify whether the ads count as electioneering communications because they mention Gov. Bev Perdue, who still has an open campaign account. If they count, AFP would need to disclose donors. (More background here.)

In a letter to the state elections agency, Steven Long, AFP's attorney, wrote that "frivolous and baseless complaints motivated by the desire to harass, such as the one presented by Mr. Hall, amount to an abuse of process and should be rejected summarily by the state board to send a signal that more authority than one man's unfounded conjecture is required to merit the state board's time and attention."

Read the full letter below. Gary Bartlett, the election agency executive director, said he expects to respond to Hall's request early this week.

The State Board of Elections has rescheduled to next week the appeal of a potential congressional candidate who was told he arrived too late to file.

Republican Nathan Tabor of Forsyth County came to Raleigh on the last day of the filing period to put his name in for the 6th Congressional District. He was told he missed the noon deadline. 

Tabor says he was in the building on time, and should be declared a candidate. 

The elections board was scheduled to hear his appeal yesterday, but postponed the hearing to March 15. Tabor wants to join three others in the GOP primary, including incumbent Rep. Howard Coble. 

Pat McCrory, the likely Republican candidate for governor, answered a few questions from the press after filing his campaign paperwork Wednesday and sidestepped a few others. Watch above. He left as Dome asked about his financial disclosure form. Please excuse the camera work and bad audio as we chased behind him.

A bipartisan group of North Carolina election officials is urging Republican lawmakers to unfreeze $4 million in federal money that they say is necessary to accommodate a large voter turnout and ensure the integrity of the 2012 ballot.

Democracy North Carolina, a liberal-leaning election advocacy group, issued a memorandum that puts a potential stalemate in stark terms: "North Carolina could become the next Florida." Read more here.

The Democratic governor's race is off to a rocky start for former Congressman Bob Etheridge. Read more about it here.

And read more from the Associated Press about the legal wrangling about redistricting after the court's ruling Tuesday.

UPDATED: The state board of elections is investigating Pat McCrory’s 2008 bid for governor more than 18 months after the state Democratic Party filed two complaints alleging violations of campaign finance laws.

Gary Bartlett, executive director of the elections board, cautioned that the inquiry so far is not implicating McCrory’s campaign in any wrongdoing, saying “nothing thus far (has) given us any pause.”

McCrory’s campaign sent a letter to state elections officials Friday questioning the timing of the investigation, given that the original complaints were filed in April 2010 and no action was taken until Oct. 31 this year.

“It’s a sad and desperate attempt to muddy the political waters and a waste of taxpayers’ money,” said campaign spokesman Brian Nick who called the complaints “frivolous and without merit.”

(Read full story here.)

The investigation into McCrory began as speculation swirled as Gov. Bev Perdue’s previous campaign faced an investigation involving unreported flights from donors and other campaign finance violations. A Wake County prosecutor indicted three Perdue associates earlier this week on criminal charges related to their work on the governor’s campaign.

Bartlett, a Democrat, said his office is looking into the McCrory complaint now because he wanted it complete before candidate filing for the governor’s race starts in early 2012. McCrory is the likely Republican Party nominee.

“We want to get it over with so it doesn’t look like ... it’s following up on the Perdue thing because it’s not,” Bartlett said.

The April 2010 complaints were filed by Andrew Whalen, a Democratic operative who at the time served as executive director for the state Democratic Party. The timing of the complaints themselves also raises questions, coming about 18 months after Perdue won the 2008 campaign but amid former Democratic Gov. Mike Easley’s legal troubles.