Eleanor Gates 'Ellie' Kinnaird (born November 14, 1931) is a North Carolina politician who served as a Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the state's 23rd Senate district from January 1997 until her resignation in 2013.

[3] In addition to these leadership positions and her other standing committee assignments on Appropriations/Base Budget, Finance, Health Care and Judiciary I (Civil), she was also a member of the NC Energy Policy Council[4] and the Environmental Review Commission.

For example, in 2005 she sponsored a bill to require that voting machine source code and election results in North Carolina can be audited;[6] the bill passed the Senate 48-0 and was signed into law in August 2005.

In 2007, Kinnaird announced that she was contemplating whether or not to run in the next election, noting that she would like a woman to replace her in the Senate.

[8] As of October 2007 only three men (Moses Carey, John Herrera, and Mike Nelson) had announced their intentions to run for the Senate seat possibly being vacated by Kinnaird.