The N.C. State Board of Elections on Wednesday dismissed a Cumberland County elections employee’s complaint that accused the county’s elections board Chair, Linda Devore, of breaking state election laws and failure to competently discharge her duties.
The board’s three Republicans voted to dismiss the complaint, while its two Democrats voted against dismissal.
This was the third claim made to the state elections board against Devore since May 2025, and the third to be dismissed.
The complaint showed personality conflicts in the county elections office, state board members said as they discussed the issue. They disagreed on whether it provided sufficient evidence of potential incompetence on Devore’s part or violations of the law that warrant further proceedings.
Information technology support technician Joshua Dovi filed the complaint on June 2, saying Devore had shown “aggressive involvement in office affairs and staff matters.”
Some details of Dovi’s allegations:
- Devore questioned Dovi multiple times, for hour-long periods, about the county’s vote-counting machines and raised unfounded concerns about them. In response, Devore previously told CityView she does not have concerns with the machines and thinks they are reliable.
- When discussing workplace policies with county elections office employees, Devore said she makes the policies, and not the full board, while state law says the board makes the decisions. Devore has disputed this assertion.
- Devore questioned Dovi about a private family medical matter that he didn’t want to discuss, and felt pressured to disclose it. He said this was in a conversation with her and during a county Board of Elections meeting. Devore said this part of Dovi’s claims against her is related to his request for the elections board to create a remote work policy for the staff.
- Devore tried to offer Dovi a promotion to a management position, which he interpreted as a bribe to dissuade him from reporting Devore’s conduct. Devore said Dovi was wrong and that the job would be open to all applicants.
The complaint came as Cumberland County Elections Director Angie Amaro remains on paid leave, which started April 24, because Devore and two other county board members are seeking to persuade the state elections director to fire her. Dovi said the situation with Amaro made him fear that he would be fired.
Case Dismissed in 7 Minutes
The state Board of Elections spent about seven minutes on Wednesday discussing and voting on Dovi’s complaint. Members said they had read its documents prior to the meeting.
“Can we agree that there’s a problem there? There’s something?” said Democratic member Jeff Carmon.
“There’s the problem. The ‘something’ was kind of nebulous,” said Republican Francis X. De Luca, the board chair. The claims read like personality gripes, he said.
Republican Stacy “Four” Eggers IV said Dovi’s allegations against Devore appeared to be interpersonal squabbles, but did not rise to violations of election laws on Devore’s part or failures to competently discharge her duties.
“It appears to me that the first couple of charges [are] that she hangs around too much at the office and talks for too long,” Democratic board member Siobhan O’Duffy Millen said. “I don’t see how we get action on that.
“But to say that all policies have to be told to her first, that’s abrogating a responsibility that she don’t have,” Millen said. The petition said Devore was pressuring the staff, and “that’s a big problem.”
There was enough evidence to continue investigating, she said.
Republican board member Angela Hawkins disagreed.
“It seems that there are personality issues more than likely happening in that office,” she said.
De Luca, Hawkins, and Eggers voted to throw out the complaint. Millen and Carmon voted against the dismissal.
On Thursday, Dovi appeared to hang up immediately when CityView called him for comment, and he did not respond to a text message.
Devore emailed a statement.
“Our board functions as a body. Allegations that I made a statement at any time indicating authority to make decisions on behalf of the Board are untrue,” she said. “In fact, at a staff meeting attended by our Assistant County Manager, Deputy Director, Mr. Dovi, and other staff, we discussed that only the Board has authority to make policy decisions.”
She described North Carolina’s election systems, including the paper ballots and vote tabulating machines, as “the best in the country.” The Cumberland County Board of Elections is working to improve “staffing, training, and communications, to provide greater accuracy and transparency in our elections process,” she said.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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