NC elections board addresses staffing changes as officials count ballots

State election officials have been dealing with staffing issues while also processing more than 800,000 ballots cast in local elections this fall.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections is in the process of replacing eight staff members who have left the agency since May, when a new state law shifted control of the board from Democrats to Republicans. Meanwhile, the agency’s public information communications director is on voluntary leave. 

For decades, state law enabled the governor’s party to enjoy a majority on the state elections board. The GOP-controlled General Assembly changed the law shortly before Democratic Gov. Josh Stein took office earlier this year, giving control of the elections board instead to the State Auditor — currently Republican Dave Boliek. 

Patrick Gannon, who has been the agency’s lead spokesperson since 2016, has been on voluntary leave since Nov. 3. Two days prior, he had issued a statement on behalf of the board accusing North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton of being “ignorant or intentionally spreading misinformation” after she blamed Boliek for technical issues on the board’s website.

The board’s website features a search tool people can use to look up registered voters. The tool stopped working in many counties across the state, which Clayton blamed on Boliek. 

“It’s clear that Republicans were wrong when they said that making Boliek the only State Auditor in the country that controls elections would not impact voting or the quality of our systems,” Clayton said.

Gannon declined WRAL’s request for comment. Jason Tyson, another spokesman for the board, said the law limits what he can say about Gannon’s leave. However, Tyson referenced the Nov. 1 statement in responding to WRAL’s questions about Gannon’s leave. 

“We released a statement by email on Nov. 1 correcting some disinformation put out over the weekend concerning the Voter Search Tool,” Tyson said. “There is always a great deal of internal discussions and debate concerning how to handle misinformation. We must be especially careful with misinformation and how to correct it, regardless of the source.”

The board’s response to Clayton comes almost a year after its former executive director, Karen Brinson Bell, accused Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger of spreading misinformation about the results of a tight state Supreme Court race. With a recount underway, Berger suggested the process was somehow rigged in favor of Democrats, quipping that it seemed like “another episode of ‘count until somebody you want to win wins.’”

In a letter, Brinson Bell offered to brief Berger on how the certification process works and asked him to “refrain from making baseless accusations of wrongdoing that could put [election workers] in danger.”

Gannon’s leave and the departure of former general counsel Paul Cox, who resigned Oct. 31, came less than a week before municipal elections were held across the state on Nov. 4. Staffing shortages haven’t affected the board’s ability to oversee elections — the board remains on-schedule to certify the results on Nov. 14, Tyson said. 

Election officials have been processing the ballots from municipal elections in 447 jurisdictions across 88 of the state’s 100 counties “without major incidents or disruptions reported of note,” Tyson said. 

In state government, some staff departures are common after a change in leadership. Under former Gov. Roy Cooper in 2019, the Democrat-led board fired its executive director — Kim Strach — who had been hired during the administration of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. The board's general counsel at the time, Josh Lawson, resigned following Strach’s termination.

When Republicans took control of the board in May, they fired Brinson Bell and replaced her with Sam Hayes, who had worked as an attorney for Republican House Speaker Destin Hall. 

Cox was the second staff leader to leave since May, Tyson said. The other was Trena Parker Velez, the agency’s deputy director of election administration. She retired in June.

Velez didn’t respond to a request for comment. Cox, the board’s general counsel since 2022, said changes in the agency’s leadership contributed to his decision to leave for a partnership role at Poyner Spruill.

“I had a great opportunity to join a law firm that has a long history of working for fair elections and supporting effective local government administration. That opportunity, in combination with leadership changes at the State Board, convinced me that it was the right time to make a move,” Cox told WRAL in a statement. 

The board has already filled five of the eight vacant positions and is also hiring for a new position created by state lawmakers earlier this year, Tyson said. Hayes announced several of the staff updates Nov. 6.

Tim Hoegemeyer, former deputy general counsel for the state Department of Instruction under Republican superintendent Catherine Truitt, is replacing Cox as the board’s general counsel. Leah Byers, a former staffer for Republican state Sen. Ralph Hise, is the board’s new legislative liaison. 

Hayes also promoted Lindsey Wakely, who previously served as deputy general counsel to the board, as its new director of campaign finance. Parker Holland, formerly the board’s election administration manager, has been named as deputy director of election administration.

Tyson was also among the new staffers announced Nov. 6. He previously worked as director of communications at the Department of Insurance under Commissioner Mike Causey. He joins a staff that also includes Chief of Staff Brian LiVecchi, who previously served in the same role for former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. Dallas Woodhouse, a former executive director for the state Republican Party, oversees elections boards across the state in a new role in the State Auditor’s Office.