The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 3-2 along political party lines on Thursday to dismiss a complaint accusing Cumberland elections board Chair Linda Devore of doing her job badly, conflicts of interest, and failing to report an alleged violation of campaign finance law.
Longtime elections watchdog Bob Hall filed the complaint against Devore, a Republican, on March 26 and called for her to be removed from office.
On a motion from Republican Stacy Eggers IV, the state board voted to dismiss the Devore complaint. The board’s majority said there was a lack of evidence supporting Hall’s allegations against Devore.
Hall’s complaint asserted that Devore favored Republicans in her decision-making, was an authoritarian leader with the county elections office staff, disrespected Democratic county elections board member Irene Grimes, and failed to report what he said was a donation that violated campaign finance law. Further, Hall said, Devore’s position as chair of an audit committee of the Cumberland County Republican Party was a conflict of interest with her service on the Cumberland County Board of Elections.
By law, elections board members are prohibited from serving as officers of political parties.
“Mr. Chairman, having reviewed the complaint, I note that it’s just a litany of personal grievances in many ways, but don’t see that any of them rise to the level of probable cause as to a violation of the requirements of Chapter 163 or terms of service related to work there,” Eggers said when he made the motion to dismiss the Devore complaint.
“Chapter 163” refers to the election laws section of the North Carolina general statutes.
Democrat Siobhan O’Duffy Millen disagreed with Eggers.
“I would say this is a tough one for me, because I am acquainted with the lady in question on another commission, and have found her very professional at all times,” Millen said. “My personal opinion is the ‘authoritative style’ part is not something that we would weigh in on. But if she was aware of an irregularity, that goes to number No. 3 here on our memo, ‘participation and irregularities in capacity or incompetency to discharge the duties of the office.’
“And I do think that the complaint suggests that may have happened,” she said.
In addition to Eggers, Republicans Francis De Luca and Angela Hawkins voted to dismiss the complaint. Democrats Millen and Jeff Carmon voted against dismissal.
Devore emailed a statement to CityView following the decision.
She said when North Carolina Auditor Dave Boliek appointed her in 2025 to serve as the chair of the Cumberland County Board of Elections, “he charged me with raising standards and improving delivery of elections services in Cumberland County, while making it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
Since then, “Our Board has been working for months, laying the groundwork for improving staffing, training, and communications, to provide greater accuracy and transparency in our elections process,” Devore said. “On February 24 we advanced a budget proposal to the county that includes an increase in personnel positions and funding that will enable us to reach these goals. The dollar amount is modest, but the impact will be significant.”
Hall told CityView he is disappointed that his complaint was dismissed.
“I don’t think they took seriously enough her role as the chair of the audit committee of the party, and that is a conflict of interest,” he said. Further, he thinks Devore had knowledge of what he alleged was an illegal donation on Eldridge’s part.
State Board Doesn’t Address Second Complaint
Hall also filed a complaint against Brenda “Bree” Eldridge, a Republican and secretary of the county election board. He accused Eldridge of violating a campaign finance law when she made a $25,000 donation to the Cumberland County Republican Party in 2022, which was before she was appointed to the county Board of Elections in 2025.
Hall accused Eldridge of being a “straw donor”—someone who secretly collects donations from others who don’t want to be publicly recorded, as required by law, as making a donation to a candidate or political party. The straw donor then turns in the money under his or her name.
Hall said Eldridge did this with her $25,000 donation in 2022 to the Cumberland County GOP. Eldrige has told CityView that Hall is wrong and that she was the source of the funds..
The state board did not address Hall’s complaint against Eldridge on Thursday. The status of the complaint is not known, as state law requires campaign finance complaints to be shielded from the public. Hall shared his complaint against Eldridge with the news media when he filed it in March.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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