Transparent Elections North Carolina (TENC) is an activist organization which claims that state authorities have not taken sufficient action to guarantee the security and integrity of elections, especially during the 2020 cycle. TENC recruits volunteers to serve as polling place observers, report alleged improprieties in election administration and vote counting, and review the printouts of vote tallies — commonly known as poll tapes — which vote-counting locations release for public record. ¹

TENC claims its objective is to ensure that elections in North Carolina are “secure, transparent, robustly audited, and publicly verified.” ² At the same time, the organization has endorsed a controversial piece of proposed federal election legislation, which its Democratic Party-aligned backers have called the For the People Act. ³ Right-of-center observers have criticized the proposal for its perceived negative impact on election integrity, such as by enshrining questionable voting policies that certain states implemented during the 2020 election cycle due to the coronavirus pandemic. Other criticisms of the act have included its perceived restrictions on state-level election security measures and its alleged incompatibility with First Amendment protections. ⁴

Initiatives and Impact

Transparent Elections North Carolina has endorsed Democratic Party-backed election legislation such as the proposed For the People Act with several requested changes, such as allowing any voter to request a paper ballot, preserving images of ballots in the public record, hand-counting ballots, and allowing for additional audits. ⁵

In June 2019, TENC founder Lynn Bernstein participated in a North Carolina State Board of Elections meeting on election security. Bernstein presented concerns over apparent inconsistencies in the state’s election infrastructure; specifically, the revelation that one of the state’s chosen voting system providers had admitted to installing remote-access software on its machines despite previously claiming that none of its systems had this feature. Bernstein called the provider’s actions “the worst decision for security” short of leaving ballots on a “street corner.” ⁶

In August 2019, TENC Bernstein successfully campaigned for the state board of elections to vote in favor of amending the state’s ballot certification program. Bernstein had criticized the state’s ballot processing infrastructure for apparently infringing on voters’ legally mandated ability to correct their ballots in case of an incomplete or faulty marking. She had also called for polling places to provide voters with exact readouts of the ballots they submitted as a public confidence measure. ⁷

TENC has argued that it has helped local governments save more than $5 million worth of taxpayer funds by advocating the purchase of hand-marked paper ballot voting systems instead of what the organization called “more expensive and less secure” digital ballot marking devices. TENC also credits itself with convincing the state board of elections to adopt random auditing of voting precincts, which the organization believes will improve transparency. ⁸

Leadership

Lynn Bernstein is the founder of Transparent Elections North Carolina. She is an aerospace engineer by profession. In addition to running her organization, she coordinates with a number of other election policy-related groups, including a North Carolina-based affiliate of the Carter Center, a left-leaning watchdog group which accepts funding from the Soros Network and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ⁹

Controversies

In May 2022, Transparent Elections North Carolina founder Lynn Bernstein and several allied activists claimed that Wake County, North Carolina, had unjustly targeted them for attempting to exercise their legal right to observe elections. According to Bernstein, a Wake County elections administrator had unlawfully directed law enforcement to cite the activists for trespassing and had also threatened to have them arrested if they attended an upcoming public meeting hosted by the state board of elections. ¹⁰

In July 2022, Bernstein filed a lawsuit against the county elections director. ¹¹ In December 2022, an initial ruling stated that the county had failed to provide a legitimate reason for barring her from the board of elections meeting and could not enforce the trespass citation as it had been issued due to political motivations, not criminal activity. ¹²

1. Transparent Elections NC. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://www.transparentelectionsnc.org/
2. Transparent Elections NC. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://www.transparentelectionsnc.org/
3. Dale Axelrod. “Dear Senators: We…” National Voting Rights Task Force. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://www.nvrtf.org/ewExternalFiles/Senators!.pdf
4. “The Facts About H.R. 1: The ‘For the People Act of 2021.’” The Heritage Foundation. February 21, 2021. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://www.heritage.org/election-integrity/report/the-facts-about-hr-1-the-the-people-act-2021
5. Dale Axelrod. “Dear Senators: We…” National Voting Rights Task Force. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://www.nvrtf.org/ewExternalFiles/Senators!.pdf
6. Aditi Kharod. “Election security in state officials’ hands in light of statements by Trump, Tillis.” The Pulse. June 14, 2019. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2019/06/14/election-security-in-state-officials-hands-in-light-of-statements-by-trump-tillis/
7. Josh Chapin. “Cary mom helps convince Board of Elections to reconsider vote on voting machines.” ABC 11. August 2, 2019. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://abc11.com/voting-machines-election-2020/5428887/
8. Lynn Bernstein, Tyler Brooks. “Lawsuit Filed Against Wake County Director of Elections and Board of Elections for Unconstitutional Retaliation Against Elections Observer.” Transparent Elections NC. July 19, 2022. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kHdl__KG-PUOxXIZNO75qRSQhDQk4p8h
9. “About Us.” Transparent Elections NC. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://www.transparentelectionsnc.org/about
10. Lynn Bernstein, John Brakey. “Wake County, NC Director of Elections engaging in Harassment, Intimidation & Violation of Citizens’ Constitutional Rights.” Transparent Elections NC, Audit Elections USA. May 17, 2022. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lZ-C6JkUiLHq3Gu2NEhFG1uYkXoFNCdh
11. Lynn Bernstein, Tyler Brooks. “Lawsuit Filed Against Wake County Director of Elections and Board of Elections for Unconstitutional Retaliation Against Elections Observer.” Transparent Elections NC. July 19, 2022. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kHdl__KG-PUOxXIZNO75qRSQhDQk4p8h
12. Stephen Horn. “Update on Bernstein…” Twitter. December 1, 2022. Accessed February 20, 2023. https://twitter.com/stephenehorn/status/1598426759032086562