NC Auditor’s office in public records fight over Dallas Woodhouse’s work

A left-leaning nonprofit says North Carolina Auditor Dave Boliek’s office is failing to comply with the state’s public records laws in the wake of the resignation of its controversial former employee. 

After the nonprofit organization, American Oversight, filed public records requests with the state Auditor’s office for communications to and from then-elections liaison Dallas Woodhouse, the group said it had not received Woodhouse texts that news reports had revealed. 

Wesleigh Stout, the Auditor’s office general counsel, said in a July 24 letter to American Oversight, reviewed by NC Newsline, that the office did not know about Woodhouse’s texts before they appeared in the news. 

The Auditor’s office took the proper steps to comply with American Oversight’s request for public records, Stout told the group’s senior counsel Elizabeth Haddix. That included the legal affairs division asking Woodhouse if he had any records on his personal devices that the office should hand over. 

Last year, state Auditor Dave Boliek appointed Woodhouse, a political operative and former state Republican Party executive director, to a newly-created job as his liaison to county elections boards.

Earlier this month, Woodhouse moved from that job to another in Boliek’s office amid a wave of controversy over his text messages to Republican county chairs about early voting sites and early voting dates. 

For example, Woodhouse texted the Jackson County elections board Chair Bill Thompson, “Don’t let them have a vote,” the morning before that county’s board was scheduled to decide on early voting locations, NC Local reported. The vote went ahead and the board approved in a 3-1 vote a location on Western Carolina University’s campus that Republican members said they received “pressure from Raleigh” to reject.

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

Woodhouse resigned from Boliek’s staff about a week after he left the liaison position.  

Stout told Haddix that because Woodhouse no longer works for Boliek, the office no longer has access to public records that may be on his personal devices. 

“Since Mr. Woodhouse is no longer an agency employee, OSA no longer has access to his personal devices or accounts and no longer has any means of accessing any public records that may be stored on such devices or accounts,” Stout wrote. 

In a letter Thursday, Haddix told Stout his response contradicts state law.

A North Carolina Court of Appeals ruling says that government records stored by a third party are subject to disclosure under the state Public Records Act. The public records law also requires “all individuals with custody of any public records to, at the end of such individual’s term of public office, deliver those records to the individual’s successor in office, or if no successor exists, to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources,” Haddix wrote. 

The Auditor’s office knew at least since June 6, when news broke about Woodhouse’s texts, that he was frequently texting about official business, Haddix wrote. Yet, the records sent to American Oversight on July 15 did not include those texts or other staff records the organization requested. 

“In light of these circumstances, the timing of Woodhouse’s abrupt resignation, coupled with the unsupported contention that your office can no longer seek access to Mr. Woodhouse’s devices and personal accounts, suggests bad faith,” Haddix wrote.