What NC county elections directors say about their jobs and why they left

When Lisa Lovedahl Rief, the former Jackson County elections director, started working in her role nearly 30 years ago, she was paid just $200 above the poverty line, about $12,000 a year. When she retired this March, she was finally earning as much as other county department heads at about $90,000, she said.

During her career in the southwestern mountain county, she witnessed firsthand how election processes have evolved, making the role of an election directors’ more complex. Burnout and the high pressures of juggling between her work and personal life are some of the reasons why she chose to retire recently and what she thinks may be causing increased turnover statewide, she said.

“It was just burnout that I can’t live up to my own standard,” Lovedahl Rief said, “and so I felt it was better for me to step away.”

North Carolina is currently grappling with a rapid loss of experienced N.C. county elections directors in a contentious, general election year, according to a recent Carolina Public Press investigation .

Two recently retired elections directors spoke to CPP about their experiences on the job and the challenges they faced very recently within their former roles. Both Lovedahl Rief and Christopher Williams , the former Bladen County elections director, have worked in election administration in the state for nearly three decades and provided much insight into what goes on behind the scenes.

While their experiences are in contrast to each other, they both agree that the role is challenging and complex.

Lovedahl Rief’s concerns echo the findings of a recent CPP investigation , which found that low pay and demanding working conditions are driving turnover.

“Elections have never been fully funded the way they should be by the counties,” Lovedahl Rief said. “I struggled for years until just recently.”

Williams’ positive experiences in a rural southeastern North Carolina county are more of an anomaly according to the data CPP analyzed statewide , which showed that many directors were grappling with low pay, while also facing increasingly demanding working conditions.

“It was a really great experience for me,” Williams said. “I told somebody it was like throwing the biggest party in Bladen.”

Williams’ starting salary in 2019 was $52,000 per year and when he retired he was earning $58,000. He said he was satisfied with his salary and it was appropriate for the surrounding counties and number of voters.

In the past five years , more than 43% of North Carolina county election directors have turned over. This past year alone saw 10 changes to election directors, according to the latest data from the N.C. State Board of Elections.

The county elections director role has become increasingly complex and requires new skills and technology, but the pay hasn’t kept up, according to Lovedahl Rief. Her salary stayed under $20,000 up until about 2004.

“The statute really hurts us and keeps salaries low,” she said of the state law governing election directors’ pay. “But honestly a lot of directors don’t do it for the money and we realize that we are the frontline of democracy and feel it’s our duty to do this.”

A 25-year-old state statute sets the minimum pay for directors at $12 per hour. The executive director of the state Board of Elections, Karen Brinson Bell , told CPP that she considers this an antiquated part of the law.

In 1994, when Lovedahl Rief started as an elections director, the job was more labor intensive, according to her, and she did everything by hand.

“I started off with a typewriter,” Lovedahl Rief said.

“Going from just paper to electronic records to using software and security, it’s definitely changed,” she said. “We deal with the public more and put out more information.”

But these changes in responsibilities also require more funding .

Lovedahl Rief struggled for years to increase funding for the Jackson County Board of Elections for things such as extra staff or security, she said. Whenever she requested extra funds, most of the time her requests weren’t approved for staff needs, she said. But by the time she was retiring, she was able to secure approval for a fourth full-time employee.

Recent elections law changes also resulted in additional responsibilities.

“They make laws that create situations where we’re constantly having to re-think or re-do the way we do things,” she said. Instead, “they should be part of the solution.”

One of the recent changes, the banning of private funding of election administration, was legally challenged by the Democratic National Committee and the North Carolina Democratic Party. Recently, a federal judge placed a hold on the lawsuit.

Lovedahl Rief used one private grant in the past for election administration in Jackson County, which she said was helpful to cover a cost that wasn’t covered by the budget. The banning of private funds is “a disservice” to county boards of elections, according to her.

Elections have become more contentious lately, she added, especially since the 2020 presidential elections. The State Board has provided training to address these issues and local law enforcement worked with the Jackson County Board of Elections to provide support if needed, she said.

“We used to have no issues and people would tell us we’ve done a great job, nothing like today where we’re worried if workers are going to get shouted at,” Lovedahl Rief said.

“Within the last several years people would wander in our office and we had no fear of them hurting staff or ourselves,” she said. “But now we have to keep our offices locked and worry about whether … bulletproof glass is needed at the reception area.”

Over the past three decades, as elections director Lovedahl Rief molded her life around elections, the years of stress finally caught up to her, she said.

“In one year you average at least three elections, she said, describing up to five or six election a year in some counties.

“That’s at least three months that are dedicated to elections. You plan your schedule around that – any kind of event, pregnancy, weddings or doctor appointments.”

Most election offices are like that, she said. At one point she had a medical health emergency in her family and she wasn’t able to be there for her family during that time because of the demands of the job.

“Regardless of what is on your plate, regardless of any medical or personal issues not only do you have to do the job, but it has to be perfect,” she said. “We just don’t feel like we can make mistakes.”

These challenges on the job could be alleviated by providing elections directors with more staff to distribute the load and fairer compensation to help support what is a very complicated and high demand job, according to Lovedahl Rief.

When Williams started as the elections director in Bladen County, he took over amid the McCrae Dowless controversy , which came with its own set of challenges. Dowless and his assistants, according to witnesses in the case, collected hundreds of absentee ballots from the county in 2018 to forge signatures on them and fill in for certain candidates.

“It was a really hard controversy and it settled down peacefully after the trials,” Williams said. “And then I was focusing more on elections.”

Dowless died in 2022, months before he was set to go on trial.

With that exception, Williams had a relatively facile experience running the Bladen County Board of Elections, he said.

“If I needed anything all I had to do was go talk to the county manager or the county commissioners and they would get what was needed here,” Williams said.

The Bladen County Board of Elections had three full-time staff and one part-time employee. Staffing was adequate, according to Williams, but they hired extra people temporarily during elections, especially general elections.

The biggest challenge for Williams was keeping up with all the legislative changes, he said.

“There were new sets of rules and it’s mostly administrative, but it really keeps you on your toes,” he said.

The State Board, he added, helped in keeping elections directors informed and in interpreting the changes to elections rules.

While harassment wasn’t an issue for elections staff in his county, Williams said, heated discussions with the public took place about all the elections rule changes, such as the new lines for districts.

“We did not experience anything hostile, threatening or anything where I felt like I needed to back away or anything,” he said. “It was a heavier election in 2020 and people were divided so that put a little negative spin to it.”

He felt he had the support and the tools he needed to do his job to run elections in Bladen County effectively, but Williams said he recognizes this is not the case in many other counties where the jobs of elections directors can be more overwhelming.

“If you’re the only person it can be overwhelming and there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “It would take at least two people to run an election but that also depends on a county, how many personnel you need and whether you are provided that.”

The workload is heavy for all elections directors and can take a toll, he added, because there’s always something to do.

“When elections end, there is a little slack, but it never stops and it’s never zero,” he said.

Williams retired in September 2023 primarily because of a family medical health issue, which requires him to be more present and involved at home.