On Monday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) voted 4-1 to allow the board to provide litigation assistance to the Anson County Board of Elections through private counsel as selected by the board’s executive director, Sam Hayes.
Republican members, including Chair Francis De Luca, Secretary Stacey “Four” Eggers IV, and Angela Hawkins, voted in favor, along with Democrat member Siobhan Millen. Democrat member Jeff Carmon was the lone no vote.
While specific information wasn’t discussed, the Anson County Board of Elections recently formally petitioned the NCSBE to remove county elections director Sherry Melton. The board also recently voted to terminate the deputy director of elections.
The newly-seated Republican-majority board took action after what members describe as years of election administration failures that went unaddressed by prior Democratic-controlled state and local election boards. According to sources familiar with the case, the failures amount to 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.
The petition and supporting evidence file submitted to the State Board of Elections remains confidential unless the director is removed for cause. However, sources familiar with the investigation say the Anson County board has accused Melton of:
• Failure to execute lawful board directives and conduct undermining the board’s ability to perform its duties
• Interference with the statutory duties of the Anson County Board of Elections
• Mismanagement and dishonesty affecting election administration
• Conduct unbecoming an elections official and county employee
Review of public records, sworn affidavits, meeting minutes, complaints, and internal correspondence examined by Carolina Journal paints a legally suspect picture of election administration in Anson County stretching back to at least 2020, when Melton became director.
Among the conflicts, in November 2020, then-US Rep. Dan Bishop publicly accused Melton and county elections officials of allowing improper assistance to voters during early voting and demanded the release of surveillance footage he said would substantiate the claims. According to local newspaper the Anson Record, Bishop threatened legal action if the video was not promptly produced and subsequently pursued court avenues. By mid-November, portions of the footage circulated publicly, including clips aired by local television outlets showing a campaign-affiliated individual near voters. However, during the county canvass, officials and the county attorney pushed back, arguing the edited videos lacked full context and did not conclusively demonstrate wrongdoing.
Among the most serious allegations leveled by the county board in the petition is that Melton violated NC Gen. Stat. § 163‑274, which makes it a Class 2 misdemeanor to interfere with the lawful duties of an election board or its members.
According to sworn statements submitted by board members, Melton allegedly cancelled a duly called and publicly noticed meeting of the Anson County Board of Elections scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, at 5pm, without board authorization. The meeting had been set pursuant to NC Gen. Stat. § 163‑31, which grants authority to the board chair or a majority of members — not staff — to call meetings or adopt a meeting schedule. The board chair alleges that she did not become aware of the cancellation until seeing the public notice over the weekend and was unable to reach Melton in time to reissue the meeting notice before the statutory deadline expired.
Board members contend that by nullifying a duly called meeting, Melton obstructed board oversight, prevented lawful decision‑making, and violated both state law and state board policy.
While Hawkins made the original motion at the board’s meeting on Monday, Millen made another motion to amend the original. Her motion stated that if Hayes chooses private counsel whose representation presents a conflict of interest due to its current handling of matters adverse to the state board, any waiver of that conflict must be signed by individual board members.
“I just would say I think that’s a personal right adhering to me as an individual, the right to waive or not waive, and no one else can waive it for me — so that’s all I would say,” Millen said.
Published reports have stated that Hayes hired an outside law firm linked to Republican politicians to defend it in a court case regarding early voting sites on college campuses.
Eggers replied that, having sat in the minority on the board for a long time, there have been a number of times he has read in newspapers or seen actions where it’s represented the state board did something that he didn’t necessarily agree with personally, but noted that this is an official capacity item rather than an individual capacity item.
“I have full confidence in Director Hayes that he will select the best counsel to represent the interests of Anson County based upon the facts and circumstances, and would note that he has great experience in selecting counsel to represent not only the General Assembly but in other matters as well,” he said.
Carmon said that while he has no doubt of Hayes’s ability to choose counsel, he would prefer that counsel not be the one with whom the board currently has a conflict.
Initially, Millen, Carmon, and Hawkins voted yes to Millen’s amended motion, and Eggers and De Luca no, but Hawkins had Eggers repeat the motion, to which she changed her vote to no, leading the motion to fail.
The vote then went back to the original motion, to which Millen voted yes, but she said she had reservations about doing it, as she said there need to be more guardrails in place than there currently are.
