NC elections board undergoes staffing shakeup following Republican takeover
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Multiple longtime senior staffers left the State Board of Elections after GOP takeover.
- Newly appointed Republican-majority board hired aides with ties to GOP lawmakers.
- Spokesperson Pat Gannon placed on paid leave after Nov. 1 press release.
Several longtime, high-ranking staffers at the North Carolina State Board of Elections have left their posts or gone on leave in recent months following the installation of a new Republican majority on the board and the ousting of its former director.
As some staffers part ways with the agency, the board has brought in a series of new hires with ties to Republican lawmakers and executive officials.
The board’s most recent shakeup came last week when top spokesperson Pat Gannon went on paid leave, which was first reported by Anderson Alerts. His leave, which the board confirmed to The News & Observer, followed the publication of an unusually combative press release that attacked Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party.
“It is normal that when you have changes in administration, you get new personnel — that’s not that unusual,” said Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University. “But to see the rhetorical barbs come out like this, I think it shows that we’ve entered a different era.”
Two departures and a top spokesperson on paid leave
Shortly after Democratic Gov. Josh Stein won the 2024 election, the Republican-led legislature passed a bill stripping him of the century-old power to appoint a majority of his own party to the elections board. Instead, they transferred that power to State Auditor Dave Boliek, a Republican.
Since Boliek’s appointment of a new Republican-majority board in May, the agency’s general counsel, Paul Cox, and deputy director of election administration, Trena Velez, have left the agency.
Then came the news that Gannon, who has served as the board’s director of public information since 2016, was going on paid leave following internal disagreements over a Nov. 1 press release.
The release, which announced the restoration of service to the state’s voter search tool following an outage, included an unusual and stark reprimand directed at Clayton, who had claimed that the outage caused issues at polling places.
“Contrary to the statements from the North Carolina Democratic Party, there was no disruption to operations,” the State Board of Elections’ statement said. “(Clayton) is either ignorant or intentionally spreading misinformation.”
The release went on to take a jab at the previous elections board, saying that new Executive Director Sam Hayes “has been working diligently to update election software that was neglected by the previous director and the then-Democratic majority.”
Cooper said that while appointed members of the State Board of Elections have made partisan statements in the past, he does not recall an official press release from the agency ever attacking a political party in this way.
Former Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell, who was ousted in May when the new board took office, said the language in the release was unprecedented.
“There has never been a time when partisan rhetoric has gone out under State Board of Elections letterhead,” she told The N&O.
Asked about the release and Gannon’s leave, the agency’s new director of external affairs, Jason 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.”
Gannon remains employed with the agency while on leave, Tyson said.
Reached by The N&O, Gannon declined to comment on the matter.
As for Cox, he resigned from his role as general counsel in September, with his last official day being Oct. 31. He’d worked for the board since 2021 and previously represented the agency while working as a lawyer in the attorney general’s office.
Speaking to The N&O, he said he encouraged the new board and staffers to “bear in mind that they’re there to serve all voters, no matter their political affiliation.”
“I hope that the board will act accordingly in the future,” he continued. “Because I think that’s what was required to maintain the voters’ trust in their elections.”
New hires worked for legislative leaders, executive officials
Amid the departures, the board announced a series of new hires last week including Leah Byers, who will serve as the agency’s legislative liaison. She most recently worked for Sen. Ralph Hise, a top Republican in the General Assembly who spearheaded the Trump-backed effort to pass a new congressional map aimed at picking up a seat for the GOP in 2026.
Tyson, the external affairs director, also started at the agency last week. He previously served as director of communications for Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, a Republican. Prior to that, he worked for former Republican Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry and former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.
Cox’s replacement as general counsel, Tim Hoegemeyer, has worked as an attorney for state agencies led by both Republican and Democratic leaders. He spent over 12 years as the top lawyer for the Office of the State Auditor under Republican Leslie Merritt Jr. and Democrat Beth Wood.
Hoegemeyer also unsuccessfully ran for auditor himself as a Republican in 2020.
These hires come in addition to several new roles created by both the elections board and the auditor’s office earlier this year.
Shortly after taking office, Hayes hired Brian LiVecchi as his chief of staff — a role that had not existed under Brinson Bell’s administration.
LiVecchi had served as chief of staff and general counsel for embattled former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in 2024 who lost after CNN published an explosive report on his links to disturbing, sexually graphic online comments.
He is now the second-highest paid person at the State Board of Elections, earning a $200,000 salary.
And at the auditor’s office, Boliek hired Dallas Woodhouse, former director of the North Carolina Republican Party, to serve as the newly-created “election liaison” between the auditor and the state’s 100 county election boards.
While Boliek is now responsible for appointing members to state and local election boards, the law specifies that the board “shall exercise all its prescribed statutory powers independently of the state auditor.”
Hayes himself comes from a political background. Prior to being appointed executive director of the board, he served as general counsel for the North Carolina speaker of the House, both under Tim Moore and Destin Hall.
The State Board of Elections has long been at the center of partisan debates, from disagreements over COVID-era voting rules to a recent attempt by Republicans to overturn the results of a 2024 state Supreme Court election.
So far, the new board has not been called on to weigh in on any major election controversies. But with legal fights over gerrymandering on the horizon and a massive U.S. Senate race brewing for 2026, North Carolina elections will soon draw national attention.
“It’s a new day at the State Board of Elections, and I think they are operating differently than the previous board did,” Cooper said. “Some people are going to see that as a bug and other people will see that as a feature of the system.”
