An election liaison position in the state auditor’s office has been eliminated after text messages showing the staff member instructing local Board of elections officials on early voting plans.
Over the last week, Dallas Woodhouse, elections liaison for the office, has faced public criticism over text messages obtained by public records requests, in which Woodhouse advised board chairs directly about early voting plans.
NC Local first reported that Woodhouse sent a message to Jackson County Board of Elections Chair Bill Thompson that read, “Don’t let them have a vote.” Woodhouse declined to comment on the messages.
In the eastern part of the state, another public records request reported by Common Cause showed a message from Woodhouse to Pasquotank County Board of Elections officials. “Drop Sunday,” the text read, advising a cut to early voting days.
Woodhouse, a longtime GOP operative, assumed the inaugural role of elections liaison in September of last year. The move came after the Republican-led legislature shifted power over control of elections boards from the governor to the state auditor in 2024. The measure faced a legal challenge but was upheld by the appellate courts.
Prior to his role with the auditor’s office, Woodhouse served as the North Carolina executive director of American Majority, an organization that touts itself as “the nation’s premier conservative training organization.
Previously Woodhouse led the state’s Republican Party from 2015 to 2019, a role that placed him in the national spotlight over Mark Harris’ ballot fraud scandal in 2018. Woodhouse left the job in 2019 on the heels of GOP Chairman Robin Hayes’ indictment on federal bribery and fraud charges.
NBC first reported the decision to reassign Woodhouse and the end of the role on Wednesday. The state auditor’s office told NC Local that the position was “not meant to be permanent.”
“Now that we are more than a year past [election board] appointments, and board chairs have settled into their roles having worked through a municipal election, primary election, and most of the local boards have passed early voting plans for the general election, the Auditor’s Office has discontinued the elections liaison role,” Randy Brechibel, a spokesperson for the auditor’s office, told NC Local via email.
Brechibel also confirmed Woodhouse’s new position in the auditor’s office. He said Woodhouse will be “working on strategic initiatives that relate to constituent services and communications.”
According to the state employee salary database, Woodhouse earned a salary of $110,000 as a “program manager” as of July 1. The job transfer was announced on July 2, and the auditor’s office has not yet confirmed his new salary to NC Local.
Woodhouse did not respond to NC Local’s request for comment.
Jackson Board of Elections Chair ‘ready to talk’
After the messages with Woodhouse became public, Jackson County Board of Elections chair Bill Thompson spoke with NC Local.
Thompson said he spoke with Woodhouse “three or four times.”
Thompson said Woodhouse did not want the board to proceed on the June 2 decision about whether to move a polling site to the Health and Human Science Building on Western Carolina University’s campus.
“His deal on that was, we’re down one Board of Elections member right now. And he wanted to wait till we got another Board of Elections member,” Thompson said. “I said, ‘you’d better kind of leave it to us and that [sic] keep them out of it,’ which, of course, it didn’t. But that’s water over the dam.”
Thompson had favored the Cullowhee Recreation Center but the majority of the board subsequently voted to use the WCU building in the midterm elections. Because the vote wasn’t unanimous, the early voting plan will be decided by the State Board of Elections. The meeting is expected to take place this summer.
Thompson said he still believes the recreation center is a better location.
“I know the whole world wants to go to the other place right now. But the way I look at it, I think a voting site should be a lot like a retail location. You should be able to drive up, park easily, get in easily and leave easily,” Thompson said.
He also said the Rec Center is a better place for people not associated with WCU to vote.
“It’s easier. It’s non-threatening to everybody. There’s no big deal like going on-campus. It’s a little bit of a deal for a lot of folks,” Thompson said.
Since the early voting plan meeting, the Jackson County Republican party has not filled the seat vacated by Wes Hanemayer, the board’s Republican secretary who resigned May 26. Hanemayer cited unnamed “third parties” who had demanded “that I take a completely illogical path” as the reason for his departure, according to Hanemayer’s resignation letter, obtained by the News & Observer.
Hanemayer has not responded to NC Local’s requests for comment.
As of July 6, Jackson County GOP Chair Justin Castle said the party was still working to find Hanemayer’s replacement.
Thompson said it’s been hard to find another board member.
“Everybody’s scared of it right now. And I understand,” Thompson said. “I mean, I’m under a lot of pressure, but I’m just old and stubborn, and so I’m standing up.”
Thompson said he sees his role on the Board as one where he works for the Republican party.
“They can yank my ass if you know what I mean. So I do have to answer to them, to a point,” he said.
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