Anson County Elections Director Neva Helms resigned Tuesday after about three months on the job. It’s the latest escalation amid ongoing turmoil surrounding the board of elections office in the rural community on the state’s central border with South Carolina.
In her resignation letter, Helms cited a laundry list of issues, including broken salary and training promises, mistreatment and ballot security concerns. She was alone in the office, with no deputy director or staff to help.
In an interview with Carolina Public Press, she said she not only had to do the job of two people by herself, but also try to address preexisting issues she inherited from the previous director, Sherry Melton.
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Anson County election board Republicans formally petitioned for Melton’s firing in April after she served for five years. Under state law, the State Board executive director makes a decision based on the petition.
While the removal petition is confidential until a final outcome is determined and ongoing legal issues surround Melton’s suspension, Carolina Journal reporting uncovered that the issues included “serious violations of election law, including recently discovered failures in ballot security, unlawful voter assistance, interference with board authority and repeated violations of election law going back more than 5 years.”
Helms was close to her breaking point already, but the final straw came Tuesday, when a local unaffiliated candidate whose petition signatures were being challenged came in and accused her of trying to remove him from the ballot. The conversation got heated as more people came in and criticized her work and intentions, and Helms got nervous. Eventually, she called the sheriff for backup to make her feel safer.
That night, she sent her resignation letter to the news media.
“I’m not willing to take the fall for that stuff that was there before I got there,” she said. “It’s going to be my name in the paper the day after the election if it’s a fail, and they’re not going to look at all the circumstances surrounding it.”
Anson salary $30,000 lower than promised
Before Melton was out the door, former auditor’s office election liaison Dallas Woodhouse reached out to Helms with a job prospect.
Would she be willing to leave her job as legislative assistant in the North Carolina General Assembly to become Anson County’s next election director? After thinking it over, Helms agreed to go for it.
Public records obtained by Carolina Public Press reveal that Woodhouse helped Helms throughout the interview process, including reviewing her resume and cover letter and helping arrange an interview between Helms and the three Anson County Republican board members at the county Republican party chair’s home.
Based on online research her husband did, Helms believed Melton’s salary was $71,000, so she asked for the same. In her offer letter, sent by Woodhouse in April, that’s what Helms was promised.
But things changed quickly. As it turns out, Melton made $63,000, not $71,000. Anson County commissioners rejected both figures. The election director position wasn’t technically open, due to ongoing litigation with Melton where she was suspended with pay. So Helms would have to be paid at the deputy director level: $43,000.
Woodhouse was upset with the decision in texts sent to a thread including Helms and board chair Kelly Newton.
“I am tempted to close the f***ing Anson Elections office and open up a G. Damn whorehouse and meth club,” Woodhouse texted on April 28, using expletives. “Some how I am going to make Anson get this right with our employees and give some of those SOB’s an up and commence.”
Eventually, Helms’ salary moved back up to $63,000, but she was still upset about leaving a good job for less than promised.
“Much of the public discussion focused on ‘the process’ being unfair, but no one talked about what that process meant for me — the person who had already accepted the position, signed the offer letter, and worked under the agreed-upon salary,” she wrote in her resignation letter. “There is a lot of talk about fairness and equity, but where was the process fair for me?”
Mistreatment
While a potential deputy director candidate was in talks with Woodhouse about the job for a while, that person decided not to take the job after the chaotic situation unfolded. That left Helms alone in the Anson County elections office in Wadesboro.
She couldn’t leave the office for security reasons, but she was required to clock out for a required lunch break. So, she ended up working through lunches without overtime.
During a countywide water outage, she said she was forced to stay in an unsanitary environment.
“I was given jugs of water and told to manually feed three gallons of water into the toilet tank each time I needed to flush it with no way to wash my hands with clean water,” she wrote in her resignation letter.
Helms added that she was excluded from some communications.
She also did not get the training she thought she would as a new elections director.
“As a result, I spent extensive hours studying independently, attending virtual sessions, reviewing state guidance, and contacting other counties for clarification when needed,” she wrote. “I worked to learn the responsibilities as quickly as possible while preparing for an upcoming election.”
State Board of Elections spokesperson Jason Tyson said Helms being the only person in the Anson County office might have prevented her from attending various trainings, if they were happening. He added that they are committed to making sure the next elections director has a positive working environment.
Right now, the state board has investigators onsite looking into Helms’ allegations, he said. They’re staffing the Anson County office with State Board personnel. The county plans to fill a deputy director and elections director position, Tyson said.
“We have an election coming up in three months that we have to prepare for, and we need someone there that knows how to run it. So, all of that is important to us, and we want to make sure things go smoothly.”
Ballot security
During her time as director, Helms noticed that an Anson County IT employee seemingly had access to the ballot room, which is supposed to be highly secure.
Durham County Elections Director Derek Bowens shed some light on the normal protocol. He said two staff people have to be present to enter the ballot room during an election period using a badge. Once they’re inside, they have to fill out a chain of custody document explaining why they needed to enter the room.
Typically, only election officials are allowed inside the room, he said.
“If people can open things like that, that’s not OK,” Helms said.
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