Wake elections board resists partisan pressure

First came reports that Republican Party State Director Dallas Woodhouse tried to influence all county boards of elections to limit early voting. Now come emails showing that he asked Wake County board member Ellis Boyle to hand the board’s chairmanship to its newly appointed member, Eddie Woodhouse, who is Dallas Woodhouse’s cousin.

Boyle, now chairman, and Democrat Mark Ezzell, the other board member, didn’t do what Dallas Woodhouse wanted on either issue. They also rejected proposals from Eddie Woodhouse to eliminate Sunday early voting hours and a voting site at N.C. State University. African-Americans in particular have employed Sunday voting, and college students tend to favor Democrats.

To his credit, Boyle, who got the directives from Woodhouse on his private email account, also told him to communicate through public channels. He told the GOP director, “I use my board (email) account for all of my public business on behalf of the Wake County Board of Elections, not my work or private email addresses.”

Dallas Woodhouse has seen national polls showing his candidate, Donald Trump, sliding, and state polls showing the same for his guy, Gov. Pat McCrory. One would think he’d focus on those campaigns and not waste his time meddling in other issues.

This story was originally published August 29, 2016 at 6:30 PM with the headline "Wake elections board resists partisan pressure."