Gov. Roy Cooper named Damon Circosta to fill the vacancy on the State Board of Elections.

In a Wednesday, Aug. 7, news release, Cooper picked Circosta, a Democrat and executive director and vice president of the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, to fill the seat left vacant when former board Chairman Bob Cordle abruptly resigned.

The Fletcher Foundation, based in Raleigh, is a nonprofit charitable organization which, among other causes, funds a number of left-leaning organizations, including the N.C. Justice Center, N.C. Common Cause, and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

Cordle told an off-color joke involving sex and cows in late July to a Cary audience of several hundred elections officials. Outcry from the joke forced Cordle to resign, leaving the board with a 2-2 partisan split.

The board will meet Aug. 23 to discuss and possibly certify voting machine vendors for the 2020 election cycle.