Elections director Tate resigns; her last day with elections board is Aug. 16

Pasquotank County’s chief elections official is stepping down after five years on the job.

Emma Tate, director of the Pasquotank Board of Elections, has resigned and her last day as director is Aug. 16, Assistant County Manager John Shannon said Thursday.

Tate was not available for comment on Thursday.

According to Shannon, Tate notified Pasquotank Manager Sparty Hammett of her intentions to resign via a telephone call. It is unclear why Tate decided to resign.

Shannon said the Pasquotank Board of Elections five-member board will appoint an interim director. No one from the elections board could be reached for comment Thursday.

North Carolina state law requires local boards of elections to nominate a new director and submit that nomination for approval by the N.C. State Board of Elections’ executive director.

According to her profile at the business networking site LinkedIn, Tate has served as county elections director since March 2020, after being promoted from interim director. From July 2019 to February 2020, Tate served as deputy director of elections. Troy White has been serving as deputy director under Tate.

Tate is at least the 59th election director to resign or retire since 2019, according to a NCNewsline.com article dated April 17. There are 100 counties in North Carolina.

In the article, writer Lisa Sorg quotes N.C. Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell testifying before a state legislative oversight committee. Bell cites voter “hostility and harassment” toward elections directors among the reasons for their resignations and retirements.

“What some of them have shared is there isn’t fuel in the fuel tank,” Bell told the committee, according to Sorg’s article. “The continued hostility and harassment, the demands on them and the workload. They thought they would see us through another presidential election but decided they couldn’t.”

Tate’s resignation will take effect less than three months before the Nov. 5 election and just over two months before the start of early voting on Oct. 17.