Investigation Underway of Cumberland County Board of Elections Member

The N.C. State Board of Elections will hear evidence on whether Cumberland County elections board member Irene Grimes violated state law when she posted on Facebook about Republicans’ intentions to fire the local elections director.

The state board voted 3-2 on August 20 along party lines, with Republicans in favor of a hearing.

Grimes, a Democrat, wrote on Facebook in April that the Republican majority on the county elections board was trying to fire local Elections Director Angie Amaro. Normally, per state law, such efforts to fire an elections director are kept secret from the public.

Shamika Bethea, president of the Cumberland County Republican Women’s Club, submitted the complaint against Grimes on August 3.

“Publicly releasing or displaying information associated with an unresolved personnel proceeding, characterizing fellow Board members’ conduct as partisan, and encouraging public intervention may constitute evidence of an irregularity, a failure to exercise appropriate judgment, or an inability to discharge the responsibilities of the office in a manner that protects the integrity of Board proceedings,” Bethea wrote in the complaint.

This is the fifth complaint filed against members of the Cumberland County Board of Elections since May 2025. Most recently, the state board dismissed a complaint from a local elections employee who accused board chair Linda Devore of interfering in the office’s operations and pressuring him into discussing private health matters.

Grimes told CityView this month that Amaro gave her permission to post on Facebook that the three Republicans on the county board had submitted a petition to the executive director of the state board to fire Amaro. Amaro told CityView the same thing in April. 

The local Republican board members submitted the petition on April 2 without notifying Grimes and Derek Edmonds, the other Democrat on the board. Grimes learned of the petition on April 18 when Amaro told her, she said.

‘Time to Move On from Angie’

Under state law, the county elections board does not have the authority to fire the county elections director. Instead, a majority of the county board can submit a petition to the state executive director that outlines reasons the local director should be fired. The county director is given an opportunity to respond, and then the state executive director makes the decision.

Amaro tried to keep her job but retired on August 1 after being on unpaid leave for 99 days. Her retirement came after the first petition was withdrawn and a second petition—this one signed by the three Republicans plus Edmonds—was submitted on July 21.

Citing state personnel privacy laws, board members have kept secret the details of why they wanted to replace Amaro.

“There was some issues between the director and other persons on the staff,” Edmonds told CityView on August 4. He said he would have signed the first petition if the Republicans had not excluded him back in April.

Following the issuance of the first petition, Edmonds said, the county’s human resources department investigated the divisions between Amaro and other elections employees. This uncovered additional information, he said, and “It led me to believe that it was time to move on from Angie.”

Sam Hayes, executive director of the state elections office, appointed Vicki Hilburn interim elections director in Cumberland County. Hilburn previously served as deputy director for the county elections office.

State Board Split

The State Board of Elections spent 3 minutes and 17 seconds on August 20 discussing Bethea’s complaint against Grimes. Republican board members said there was sufficient evidence to hold a hearing.

“I am concerned about the disclosure of confidential personnel information, because that is a violation of statute, and we have previously found probable cause of a violation under similar circumstances,” Republican board member Stacy Eggers IV said. “I do believe that as to the disclosure of confidential personnel information—that alone—that it would be prima facie evidence to move forward.”

Democratic state board member Siobhan O’Duffy Millen disagreed.

“I was under the impression that all she said on the social media was: There is a complaint against this person,” Millen said. “But she didn’t go into the details of why, or confidential things like that. And she was rallying people to pay attention. So I think, to me, she skirted around the personnel issue successfully.”

Bethea told CityView she hopes the state board will take action against Grimes that will discourage other people from releasing sensitive information. “That it will set an example and raise the standard that anyone that holds that public office, that they will understand the necessity of making sure that personnel actions stay confidential,” Bethea said.

It doesn’t matter that Amaro gave Grimes permission to release the information, Bethea said, because the publicity caused tensions for county elections staff. 

“We need to make sure that they feel like they’re in a safe working environment,” she said. “And any time that is broken, that should be a concern, not just for one person, but for everybody.”

‘Can I Take a Picture and Post’

Grimes said she did nothing wrong when she posted on Facebook that the Republicans on the county elections board were trying to fire Amaro. “I am very careful about what I post on social media,” she said.

Grimes said Amaro showed her the first termination petition.

“And then I said, ‘Can I take a picture and post about this?’ and she said ‘Yeah,’” Grimes said. “So nobody can say that I found out about this through my duty as a board member, because I didn’t.”

Grimes posted an image of the letter the state executive director sent Amaro about the petition, and an image of the cover page of the petition.

“This action is not only, in my view, unwarranted and unjustified—it was also done without transparency: no motion, no second, and no vote,” Grimes wrote in the post. “We need to pay attention, stay informed, and speak up in support of experienced, nonpartisan election administration.” 

Grimes said she did not post the part of the petition that outlined Republican board members’ reasons for wanting Amaro to be fired, because Amaro did not give her permission to do so.

Following Grimes’ post, community activists began attending county Board of Elections meetings to protest the effort to fire Amaro. Some wondered if the board’s Republicans had targeted Amaro for partisan reasons.

Fifth Complaint in 18 Months

This is the fifth time since May 2025 that a complaint has been filed against members of the Cumberland County Board of Elections. The four previous complaints: 

• In May 2025, Lee County Republican Party Chair Jim Womack accused Devore, a Republican, of having an illegal conflict of interest between her service on the Cumberland County Board of Elections and her position in 2024 as chair of the credentialing committee for the North Carolina Republican Party’s annual convention. The state Board of Elections unanimously dismissed the complaint in July 2025. Devore has been the chair of the county board since June 2025.

• In March, fair elections advocate Bob Hall filed a complaint against Republican board secretary Bree Eldridge, alleging she made an illegal $25,000 “straw donor” contribution to the Cumberland County Republican Party. He said she took money from other people and donated it under her name so the other people wouldn’t be named in public records of campaign donations. Eldridge has said the accusation is untrue. Hall on Tuesday said the matter is still pending, to the best of his knowledge, as he has not been told that it has ended. State law keeps campaign finance law complaints and investigations secret from the public, according to the state Board of Elections office.

• Also in March, Hall accused Devore of a conflict of interest between her role on the Board of Elections and her serving as chair of an audit committee with the Cumberland County Republican Party. He also alleged Devore failed to report to authorities the allegedly illegal donation by Eldridge. The state elections board voted 3-2 along party lines in April to dismiss the complaint.

• In June, Cumberland County elections office employee Joshua Dovi accused Devore of several things, including illegally interfering in the office’s operations, coercion, and pressuring him into discussing private health matters. The state board voted 3-2 on June 24 along party lines to dismiss the complaint.

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.