North Carolina officials on Thursday dismissed a complaint against a Cumberland County election official accused of failing to report a potential campaign finance violation and mismanaging the local elections board.
Longtime North Carolina campaign finance watchdog Bob Hall filed the complaint last month against Linda Devore, a Cumberland County Republican Party official who now serves as chair of the Cumberland County Board of Elections.
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He alleged that she knew of and failed to report a 2022 scheme by another CCRP member designed to hide the identity of donors behind a $25,000 check to pay retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to appear at a local GOP fundraiser. Hall also alleged, based on affidavits from her fellow Cumberland County GOP insiders, that Devore told others that the purported scheme could bring felony charges if discovered.
Devore denied the allegations to WRAL last month, saying that she has deep respect for elections laws, and that she doesn’t believe the other CCRP member committed a crime or did anything else improper.
On Thursday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections dismissed the complaint against Devore during a board meeting. Republican board member Stacy Eggers noted that many of the allegations in the complaint centered on purported actions that occurred while she wasn’t a sitting member of the county elections board. He also said some of the allegations — which were supported by affidavits from five of Devore’s fellow Republicans — focused on things that he didn’t think were covered by election law or that Hall didn’t provide enough evidence to prove election laws were broken.
“It's just a litany of personal grievances in many ways,” Eggers said during the meeting, “but don't see that any of them rise to the level of probable cause.”
Siobhan Millen, a Democratic member of the board, spoke against the motion to dismiss, saying that the complaint raised concerns about financial irregularities.
In a statement late Thursday, Devore said she takes her role seriously and was intent on carrying out the mission she was given when she was appointed by State Auditor Dave Boliek, whose office oversees the state elections board.
“He charged me with raising standards and improving delivery of elections services in Cumberland County, while making it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” Devore said in a statement.
“Nothing is more important than protecting the sacred rights of voters, and the process by which we elect political leadership in this nation, this state, and in Cumberland County, by embracing high and exacting standards, with strong accountability,” she said. “Our board has been working for months, laying the groundwork for improving staffing, training, and communications, to provide greater accuracy and transparency in our elections process.”
She added that she has requested more funding to ensure those goals are met. “Cumberland
County deserves no less,” she said.
Hall also filed a complaint last month against the person he alleges ran the donor scheme, Brenda Eldridge, a former chair of the Cumberland County Republican Party who, like Devore, now serves on the county’s board of elections. It was unclear Thursday whether the State Board of Elections is investigating that complaint. State law requires state board investigations to remain confidential unless they lead to charges. A spokesperson for the state board previously declined to comment on that complaint, citing the state-mandated rules on confidentiality.
Eldridge hasn’t responded to a WRAL request for comment. Hall wrote in his complaint that he confronted her with his evidence before filing the complaint, and that she denied it to him.