A relatively obscure statewide position focused on tracking dollars has exploded into a power center shaping how and where North Carolinians vote this fall, sparking alarm among election officials and voting rights advocates who say one Republican is overstepping his authority in troubling ways.
Dave Boliek, who won the state auditor's office for Republicans in 2024, suddenly wields sweeping control over elections after the GOP-controlled legislature stripped the power from the incoming Democratic governor in a lame-duck maneuver. Boliek can now appoint State Board of Elections members, control the board's budget, and pick county election board chairs. The auditor's office is now actively soliciting information about county early voting plans, offering feedback, and pushing for specific changes ahead of the November general election.
This intervention marks a stark departure from precedent. Karen Brinson Bell, the former executive director of the State Board of Elections, said she was never contacted by governors' offices during her tenure, including under Republican Pat McCrory. "I was never contacted as a county director or a state director by anyone in the governor's office or other state official to try to influence early voting plans," she said.
The reach of Boliek's office is evident across the state. In Cabarrus County near Charlotte, the auditor wanted a new polling site added in Midland, a mostly white suburban town of fewer than 5,000 residents. In Randolph County, the auditor's office requested a site in Liberty, a rural area with a new Toyota manufacturing plant. In Columbus County, Dallas Woodhouse, the auditor's elections liaison and former state Republican Party chairman, specified in a group chat that the county should have exactly three early voting sites, not five.
"It is totally beyond what was envisioned and what was said on the floor of the Senate and the House when they were passing this law," said Terence Everitt, executive director of the North Carolina Voter Protection Alliance, a voting rights group. Everitt is a Democrat who was a state representative when the bill authorizing the transfer passed.
The stakes of these decisions are concrete. Research consistently shows that proximity to early voting locations directly affects turnout, especially in competitive races. "If they make these changes, it will have an impact," said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University.
In Jackson County, the pressure took on a more ominous tone. Republican Elections Board member Jay Pavey said the auditor's office told him it would try to remove him from the board if he voted for a new, larger early voting site on Western Carolina University's campus. Pavey felt the site was best for the community. Instead, the board's Republican chair, Bill Thompson, voted against the proposal, citing pressure from state officials. Pavey criticized the auditor's office directly: "I think it's highly inappropriate for the auditor's office to do this. My vote was not for a political party, it was not against the party, it was for the residents of Jackson County."
Democratic Governor Josh Stein condemned the Jackson County situation on social media, calling it outrageous that Boliek's office pressured local board members to reject the campus site. Democratic members of the State Board of Elections requested an investigation, but a lawyer told them an inquiry requires approval from the majority, which Republicans control.
Boliek defends his office's actions as routine oversight. "It is not unusual at all for appointees to boards and commissions if they have questions or need guidance to reach out to the appointing office," he said. He frames his approach as expanding voting access and ensuring geographic diversity to reduce drive times for voters. His office is pursuing what he calls an "easy to vote, hard to cheat" philosophy.
But the pattern troubles voting rights advocates. Jeff Carmon, a Democratic member of the State Board of Elections, said state officials have never before inserted themselves into local voting decisions. "I've never seen a state official put their 2 cents into what a local board should be doing," he said.
Under the law, the State Board of Elections should operate independently of the auditor's office when resolving disputes that counties cannot settle on their own. Yet the auditor's office is now weighing in before counties finalize their plans. In Granville County, Elections Board Chair Larue Ulshafer referred to Boliek as "the boss" and relayed the auditor's preferences to county staff in writing.
Boliek dismissed complaints as partisan griping. "I think the complaint is the fact that the state auditor is a Republican," he said. "That's the only complaint I hear."
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Boliek may be right that his staff isn't breaking the letter of the law, but he's clearly broken something else: the unwritten rule that statewide officials stay out of local election board decisions. The fact that it took a Republican elections officer publicly objecting to feel comfortable speaking up shows how much power his office now wields over people he appointed."
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