Former GOP operative the state auditor hired for elections work resigns amid controversy

The former GOP operative hired by Auditor Dave Boliek to work with county boards of election has resigned after controversies flared over his involvement in early voting plans. 

Dallas Woodhouse resigned Monday, about a week after he was reassigned from the elections liaison position. 

Conflicts over early voting sites came to light when Republican members of the Jackson County Board of Elections said they received “pressure from Raleigh” to reject a site on Western Carolina University’s campus. 

NC Local, through a public records request, found that Woodhouse told Jackson elections chairman Bill Thompson “don’t let them have a vote” before the meeting on early voting sites.

In that meeting, Thompson tried to convince the other members to postpone the vote. He failed, and ended up as the sole vote against the campus site.

A GOP county elections board member said he was warned against voting for a campus polling site

Details of other interactions between Woodhouse and county board chairs followed. 

Carolina Public Press was the first to report Woodhouse’s resignation. 

In his resignation letter, Woodhouse said selecting early voting sites is among local officials’ most difficult responsibilities.

“One lesson this experience reinforced is that election administration is fundamentally local,” he wrote. “The people closest to those communities understand those communities best.”

Woodhouse said his aim was to improve voter access and strengthen public confidence in elections.

“I am certain that my advice was not always correct,” he wrote. “Looking back, there are recommendations I might have made differently today. I certainly would have been more precise in my communications at times.”

Woodhouse is a former NC Republican Party executive director and a former Americans for Prosperity state director. A president of the nonprofit Carolina Rising, Woodhouse famously bragged in 2014 about helping elect Thom Tillis to the US Senate.  That pronouncement led Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to file an FEC complaint alleging Carolina Rising broke campaign finance laws. In 2016, the FEC deadlocked 3-3 on a vote to investigate the group.