In a departure from past practices, state officials with elections oversight are openly supporting candidates this year.
Elections director Sam Hayes attended a Feb. 6 campaign fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Tim Moore (R-N.C.).
State Auditor Dave Boliek, who now oversees the N.C. Board of Elections, campaigned for Senate Leader Phil Berger at an early voting site Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon, Boliek led a meeting of a new elections management system commission he created.
In past years, officials with responsibility for elections have avoided the appearance of favoring political parties or candidates. However, both Hayes and Boliek told NC Newsline Tuesday they’re doing nothing wrong.
“I don’t have any control over how people vote,” Boliek said, before objecting to questions about campaigning for Berger (R-Rockingham). Berger’s competitive primary against Rockingham County sheriff Sam Page has drawn national attention.
“Gov. Cooper, by the way, had control of the election system and campaigned regularly for other candidates,” Boliek said. “Did you ever question Gov. Cooper? I think the answer is ‘no,’” he said before turning away.
Cooper appointed members of the state board, as Boliek does, but did not run election-related meetings or make public forays into elections administration, as Boliek has.
Hayes worked for Moore in the legislature when Moore was the speaker of the state house.
Both Hayes and Boliek appear in a video that Moore recently posted to social media touting the controversial SAVE Act, which would require a passport, birth certificate, or other proof of citizenship to register to vote.
On Tuesday, Hayes said he doesn’t make campaign donations, but attends Moore events as a friend of many years.
“When he’s in town and he invites me to these things, I attend them, because he is a dear friend,” Hayes told Newsline.
Legal guardrails
The state Board of Elections wields a great deal of power. It sets policies for the county boards to follow, and also conducts investigations into campaign finance and voting irregularities.
State law places some guardrails around the political activities of elections board members and elections employees. They aren’t allowed to make public statements supporting or opposing candidates, openly support passage of referendums, or fundraise for a candidate or political committee.
However, “individual expressions of opinion, support, or opposition not intended for general public distribution” are allowed.
Still, Sailor Jones, head of Common Cause NC, said the state elections director should not show candidates favoritism.
“At a moment when North Carolinians are navigating new voting rules and confusing hurdles, it should be deeply concerning to anyone who cares about fair elections that North Carolina’s elections director is spending the midterms campaigning for certain candidates on the ballot rather than making it easier for all voters casting them,” he said in a statement.
“It’s hard to imagine a more glaring conflict of interest for someone in a nonpartisan role nor a better justification for a hard look at who is running our state’s elections,” Jones added.
However, Board of Elections Chairman Francis De Luca said there was nothing wrong with Hayes going to Moore’s fundraiser. If there is ever a need for an investigation where Hayes had a conflict, he could recuse himself, De Luca said.
“We still have freedom of association in this country,” he said.
Blurred lines
Boliek, the only state auditor in the country with any responsibility for elections, has Republican legislative leaders to thank for that.
After Democrat Josh Stein won the 2024 election for governor, Republicans in the legislature pushed through a law that took election board appointment powers away from the governor and gave them instead to the newly-elected Republican auditor. Boliek then used his appointments to flip the state election board majority from Democrat to Republican, and appointed Republican chairs to the county boards.
Berger in particular has championed the expansion of the auditor’s powers under Boliek, backing proposals to add dozens more employees and political hires to his department than previous auditors were allowed.
The 2024 law transferring elections board appointment power to Boliek put the state Board of Elections partly in and partly out of his office. While budgeting is to be done under Boliek’s “direction and supervision,” the law says the board is to continue to exercise its powers over policy and operations independently, as it previously did under the governor’s oversight.
However, Boliek has blurred those lines. He appointed former Republican political operative Dallas Woodhouse to a job as his “eyes and ears on the ground,” with duties including shaping early voting plans, election policy and election integrity.
In January, Boliek posted a letter to social media, asking the board to investigate voter registrations with non-residential addresses. College students most often have mailing addresses that differ from their dormitory addresses. Boliek also told the board to evaluate the need for updated residential address formats for students.
De Luca told Boliek they would do it.
“Thank you for your leadership on the issue of election integrity,” De Luca wrote. “The State Board of Elections looks forward to working with you to continue improving elections administration for the people of North Carolina.”
When the board announced a new hire this week, it was a joint announcement between Boliek and Hayes, and both were pictured with the new employee.
State Sen. Terence Everitt (D-Wake), executive director of the North Carolina Voter Protection Alliance, denounced Hayes’ and Boliek’s political activities. The North Carolina Voter Protection Alliance is a new nonprofit that does not have to disclose its donors.
“Election administrators are supposed to be the referees,” Everett’s statement said. “When referees show up in campaign spaces, especially during active voting, it blurs lines that should be clear.
“This is not about party. It is about standards,” the statement continued. “There should be clear and enforceable ethical guardrails separating election administration from campaign politics. North Carolinians deserve to know those lines exist and that they are respected.
“If the State Auditor intends to involve his office more directly in election oversight, that office must hold itself to the highest standard of independence,” Everitt concluded. “Oversight authority and visible partisan alignment cannot sit comfortably together.”
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