The corruption of the State Board of Elections

State Auditor Dave Boliek is weaponizing the State Board of Elections to make voting more difficult for young people.

State Auditor Dave Boliek wants you to believe that he’s a fiscal hawk, holding agencies and municipalities financially responsible. He’s really a partisan hack who filled the state board of elections with GOP operatives instead of election professionals. Now, he is using his office to pressure local boards of elections to make voting more difficult for young people.

According to Republican members of the Jackson County Board of Elections, Boliek’s office pressured them to vote to remove an early voting site from Western Carolina University. Republicans control the board with a three-two majority. One GOP member, Jay Pavey, said, “I’ve been told that if I don’t vote a particular way, that they will do whatever they have to do to remove me from the board.” Jackson County Board Chair Bill Thompson admitted that he was told to eliminate the student voting site by Boliek’s office. Another member, Wes Hanemeyer, resigned saying, “If third parties feel they can demand that I take a completely illogical path, that means they are convinced they have control.”

Tellingly, the North Carolina Republican Party applauded Boliek, not the members of the Jackson County GOP.

Republicans gained control of the state board of elections after the legislature voted to strip the agency from the governor’s office and give it to the Auditor. They tried that before but the Supreme Court stopped them. The new court with a GOP majority, led by Chief Justice Paul Newby, an unabashed partisan, reversed the ruling and allowed the transfer. Ever since, Boliek has packed the SBOE with partisan operatives instead of election professionals.

Dave Boliek wants you to think he’s a serious guy. He’s got the credentials and résumé of a public servant, but those are deceiving. He switched parties after the GOP had abandoned its conservative principles and embraced the authoritarianism and corruption of Trump. In other words, power and the possibility of wealth appealed to Boliek, not limited government or free markets.

Boliek could have shown his independence by appointing a state board of elections made up of good government advocates and run by election professionals. Instead, he appointed hard-core partisans to the board and political operatives to run the agency. He’s weaponized the state board of elections, making it a tool of the GOP rather than the nonpartisan agency it’s supposed to be.

Board Chair Francis De Luca was president of the Civitas Institute and participated in independent expenditure operations to defeat Democrats. The liaison to the county boards of elections is Dallas Woodhouse, a former chair of the NC GOP and Republican operative for more than 25 years. The executive director is Sam Hayes, who served as legal counsel for GOP House Speakers Tim Moore and Destin Hall. I had some hopes for Hayes, but those are fading.

I don’t have any illusions about Boliek. He’s an anti-democratic opportunist driven by petty resentment, some deep-seated insecurity, or some combination of both. He’s 58 years old and looks 75. Something’s been eating at him to age him that fast.

Boliek looks grandfatherly and can run in the right social circles. I’m sure he’s pleasant, friendly, and professional, but there’s nothing really there except self-interest. His whole history is one of opportunism with few core values.

Boliek wanted to be appointed to the state Senate as a Democrat to succeed retiring Senator Tony Rand, but the appointment went to Margaret Dickson instead. Not long after that, he started supporting Republicans after they gerrymandered themselves into power after 2011. He switched parties in 2023 while Trump was running for re-election. We can only imagine what promises he got. He and the modern GOP deserve each other.

Republicans in North Carolina chafe at charges that they are anti-democratic or authoritarian, but their actions prove the accusations. They’ve used extreme gerrymandering to rig districts to keep themselves in power. They’ve implemented voter suppression laws to limit access to the ballot box. Now, they are weaponizing the state board of elections to bully counties into making voting more difficult for people they believe are more likely to vote for Democrats.

Dave Boliek could have proven himself to be an independent. Instead, he’s proven himself to be a hack. North Carolinians deserve to know who he is.