RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — A State Board of Elections employee is on leave after an internal disagreement centered around what another spokesperson calls misinformation.
Earlier this month, a voter search tool went offline for a few hours. Anderson Clayton, Chair of the state’s Democratic Party, released a statement saying voters and poll workers were impacted.
She wrote: “When Dave Boliek first took over the Board of Elections he removed career election professionals to fill his leadership with inexperienced, partisan appointees. Now, on the last day of early voting before our municipal elections, the NCSBE Voter Search tool went down in 94 out of 100 counties and poll workers are having difficulty quickly identifying and registering voters.”
Sam Hayes, Executive Director of the State Board of Elections, said voters and poll workers were never impacted by the system being down.
On November 1, once the voter search tool was back up and running, the State Board released a statement saying Clayton was “either ignorant or intentionally spreading misinformation.” The Board’s Public Information Director, Patrick Gannon, sent that email.
But after what the newly-appointed Director of External Affairs, Jason Tyson, called “internal discussions and debate,” Gannon, who had been with the Board since 2016, was placed on leave on November 3. In an email to CBS 17 News, Tyson said in part, “We must be especially careful with misinformation and how to correct it, regardless of the source.”
Gannon worked under the former Director, Karen Brinson Bell, who was appointed under Democratic former Governor Roy Cooper. Brinson Bell also worked under the current Democratic Governor Josh Stein until she was replaced by Hayes.
Fears over politicizing the Board
Lawmakers and Democrats have expressed concern over the Board becoming too political.
Earlier this year, Hayes replaced Brinson Bell after Republicans took control of the Board. Hayes had previously worked as General Counsel for the Office of Speaker of the House, which has been held by Republicans since 2011. Hayes also ran for Attorney General as a Republican.
Earlier this year, the Republican-led General Assembly passed a bill to give the State Auditor, currently Republican Dave Boliek, more control over the State Board of Elections. That has historically been handled by the Governor.
At the time, Democrats rallied against the change.
“I think one of the things we’re seeing now really is that politization and the way that, that fear that the board is going to be used to drive results and overturn sort of standard practices in ways that are meant to be political and to benefit Republicans,” Senator Lisa Grafstein said at the time.
Republicans pushed back, though, claiming the Board needed more strict oversight.
“It’s a national embarrassment, they’re not interpreting or following the law frankly the way that it’s written by the General Assembly and so that’s all we want, we want a board that simply enforces the law as written by the General Assembly,” House Speaker Destin Hall said at the time.
Source: Fox 8 News Channel
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