Firing a county board of elections director is a legal matter in North Carolina.
The law spells out, in specifics, what the county board must do, along with tasks of the State Board of Elections and its executive director.
At its Jan. 22 meeting, the Lenoir County Board of Elections kicked off that process when it filed a 106-page petition to remove Dana King as elections director. She’s occupied her current position since assuming its duties in 1997.
King, appearing confident Wednesday, said she wouldn’t comment as it’s an internal personnel matter, but that she will send a reply on the allegations to State Board of Elections Executive Director Gary Bartlett, and will make a public comment once the matter is settled.
The petition mentions at length problems regarding King’s administration of the agency. The board cited lack of communication from King on documents that needed to be read and signed, needed training materials for board members, a work plan so tasks weren’t made at the last minute, changes that had to be done to the board website and availability of monthly reports on the board’s finances and activities.
At a closed meeting on March 13, 2012, the board members met with King for a performance review on what needed changes and attention. According to the petition, there were significant differences between the board’s and King’s assessments of her time on the job. When they met again in September, there was an even larger difference.
According to the board, King “ignored directives” agreed to in March and bungled the entire one-stop voting process. The petition states King didn’t bring on and train enough necessary people to properly staff one-stop locations and budgeted for $10,000 less for 2012-13 than in 2008-09, despite expected high turnout.
It also notes one-stop locations weren’t ready to go on the first day of early voting with supplies delivered midday and 50-foot campaign barriers not properly erected. The board notes numerous complaints about campaigns violating the 50-foot barrier, and The Free Press detailed early voting issues in its Oct. 20, 2012 edition.
The petition says the board only found out about under-budgeting when it met with Lenoir County Manager Mike Jarman in January. Overall, the budget showed a $20,847 overrun and $5,242.39 in overtime.
The board said in the petition it believes King either didn’t know of the budgetary situation or deliberately misled the members when she told them before Election Day there wouldn’t be a problem.
On Wednesday, Lenoir County Board of Elections Secretary Oscar Herring said the board was only going to comment on the matter through Chairwoman Sharon Kantor. She said she couldn’t speak as to why previous members of the board of elections didn’t have such problems with King’s performance.
“I can only speak to this board’s concerns with effective and efficient management,” Kantor said. “That may not have been a concern to previous boards — I can’t speak to that. … Anything I would say in that regard would be speculation.”
By not properly providing notice and requesting approval of the overtime earlier, the board said she violated county policy and federal law by her perceived mishandling of the overtime by both her staff and poll workers.
Jarman said whether King did or didn’t do the right thing is the responsibility of the county board.
“The director of the Board of Elections reports directly to the board. The county is only responsible for the funding of that, not the management of the employee,” Jarman said. “So, that’s a personnel issue between the director and the board of elections.”
He added, “Plus, we’re not completely informed of everything they’re doing. That’s their action.”
Former Lenoir County Board of Elections Chairman Bobby Waller said he didn’t have any problems with King.
“The 16 years that I dealt with her was nothing but super,” Waller said. “She was a fine lady, does a fine job.
“All the poll workers love her. I don’t know anybody who dislikes her except for the current board.”
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at WolfeReports.
Breakout Box
Lenoir County Board of Elections:
Sharon Kanter, chairwoman
Oscar Herring, secretary
Kim Allison, member
To view the petition from the Lenoir County Board of Elections to State Board of Elections Executive Director Gary Bartlett, visit www.co.lenoir.nc.us/documents/BOE01222013-Redacted.pdf