when Lisa Lovedal Reef, The former Jackson County elections director said she was making about $12,000 a year, just $200 above the poverty line, when she took the job nearly 30 years ago. By the time she retired in March of this year, she was finally making about $90,000, matching the salary of other county department heads, she said.
During her time working in a southwest mountain county, she saw how the election process has evolved and the role of elections commissioner has become more complicated. She said burnout and the immense pressure that comes with juggling work and personal life are part of the reasons she recently decided to retire and may be contributing to the increased turnover across the state.
“I was just burned out from not being able to meet my own standards,” Lovedal Reef said, “so I felt like it was best to quit.”
According to a recent Carolina Public Press investigation, North Carolina is currently facing a rapid loss of experienced North Carolina county election officials in a contentious general election year.
Two recently retired election commissioners spoke to CPP about their experiences and the challenges they recently faced in their previous roles. Christopher WilliamsThe former Bladen County elections chairman has been involved in election administration in the state for nearly three decades and offers a lot of insight into what goes on behind the scenes.
Though their experiences are contrasting, both agree the role is challenging and complex.
Lavdal Leaf’s concerns are in line with recent CPP survey findings that low wages and harsh working conditions are driving people to quit.
“Election funding has never been as well funded by the county as it should have been,” Lovedal Reif said. “It’s been a struggle for years, up until very recently.”
Williams’ positive experience in rural counties in southeastern North Carolina is the exception rather than the rule, according to a statewide analysis of data by CPP, which found that many directors suffer from low pay while also facing increasingly challenging working conditions.
“It was a really cool experience for me,” Williams said. “I told someone it was like having the biggest party in Bladen.”
Williams’ starting salary in 2019 was $52,000 a year and he was making $58,000 when he left. He said he was happy with his salary and thought it was reasonable given the number of counties and voters he serves.
Over the past five years, more than 43 percent of North Carolina’s county election boards have been replaced, with 10 election board changes in the last year alone, according to the most recent data from the North Carolina State Election Commission.
As the role of county elections chair has become more complex, requiring new skills and technology, salaries have not kept up, said Ms. Lovedal Reef, whose salary was less than $20,000 until about 2004.
“This law is a real pain for us and keeps our salaries low,” she said of the state law governing election commissioners’ compensation, “but honestly, a lot of commissioners aren’t in this job for the money. We know we’re on the front lines of our democracy, and we feel this job is our duty.”
A 25-year-old state law mandates a minimum wage of $12 an hour for election commissioners. Karen Brinson Belltold the CPP that he believes this is an outdated piece of law.
When Lovedal Leaf became election commissioner in 1994, the job was more labour intensive and everything was done by hand, she said.
“I started with a typewriter,” Lovedal Leaf says.
“The shift from just paper records to electronic records and the use of software and security has definitely changed things,” she said. “We’re engaging with the public a lot more and getting more information out.”
But these shifts in responsibility will also require more funding.
Lovedal Reef said he struggled to get more funding for the Jackson County Board of Elections after years of spending it on additional staff, security and other personnel. When he requested more money, his requests were almost always denied due to a lack of staffing, he said. But by the time he left, he was able to get approval to hire a fourth full-time employee.
Recent changes to the Election Law also bring additional responsibilities.
“They’re making laws that create a situation where we have to constantly rethink and redo the way we do things,” she said. “Instead, they should be part of the solution.”
One of the most recent changes, a ban on private funding for election administration, has been legally challenged by the Democratic National Committee and the North Carolina Democratic Party, with a federal judge recently putting the case on hold.
Lovedal Reif said Jackson County has used private grant funding once before to administer elections, helping cover costs the budget couldn’t cover. She said the ban on private funding would be a “disservice” to the county elections board.
She added that elections have become more contentious recently, especially since the 2020 presidential election. The state board is providing training to address these issues, and local law enforcement is working with the Jackson County Board of Elections to provide assistance as needed, she said.
“Before, there were no problems and people told us we did a great job. There’s no fear of workers being yelled at like there is now,” Lovedal Leaf said.
“For years now, we’ve had people come into our office without worrying about them hurting staff or ourselves,” she said, “but now we have to lock our offices and we’re concerned about whether we need bulletproof glass in our reception areas.”
Chief Election Commissioner Lovedal Leaf said his life had revolved around elections for the past 30 years, but the stress of the years had finally reached a breaking point.
“On average, there are at least three elections per year,” she said, explaining that some counties have five or six elections per year.
“At least three months will be dedicated to the election. All sorts of events, pregnancies, weddings, doctor’s appointments, we will plan our schedules accordingly.”
She said most campaign offices are like that: At one point, she had a family health emergency and her work schedule prevented her from being there for them during that time.
“No matter what job you have, no matter what health issues you have, no matter what personal issues you have, not only do you have to do your job, you have to do it perfectly,” she said. “We feel like we can’t make mistakes.”
These job challenges could be alleviated by giving election officials more staff, spreading the burden and offering more equitable compensation to support a job that is highly complex and in high demand, Lovedal Leaf said.
When Williams became Bladen County’s elections director, he took over at the height of the McCray-Dowless controversy, which came with its own set of challenges: Witnesses in that case say Dowless and his aides collected hundreds of absentee ballots from the county in 2018, forging signatures and padding them with ballots for specific candidates.
“It was a really intense dispute, but it was resolved peacefully after the trial,” Williams said. “The focus then shifted to the election.”
Dowless died in 2022, months before the trial was to begin.
With that exception aside, Williams had a relatively easy experience running the Bladen County Board of Elections, he said.
“If there’s anything you need, you just talk to the county manager or the county commissioners and you get what you need here,” Williams said.
The Bladen County Board of Elections had three full-time employees and one part-time employee, and Williams said the staffing was adequate, but they hired additional temporary staff during election years, especially during the general election.
Williams’ biggest challenge has been keeping up with all the legal changes, he said.
“There are some new rules, mostly administrative, but it really puts you on edge,” he said.
He added that the state board is providing information to the elections commission and working with them in interpreting changes to election rules.
Williams said harassment hasn’t been a problem among the county’s election staff, but there have been heated discussions with residents about changes to election rules, such as new precinct boundaries.
“We didn’t experience anything that was hostile or threatening or that made me feel like I had to back down,” he said. “The 2020 election was more intense and people were more divided, so that created a bit of a negative vibe.”
Williams said he felt the support and tools needed to effectively run Bladen County elections were in place, but he recognized that wasn’t the case in many other counties, where elections officials’ jobs can be more demanding.
“It would definitely be difficult if you were doing it by yourself,” he said. “You need at least two people to run an election, but it depends on the county and how many people they need and if they can provide them.”
The workload for all election officials is heavy and sometimes taxing as there is always something to do, he added.
“There will be a little bit of slack after the election, but it will never stop, it will never go to zero,” he said.
Williams retired in September 2023, due primarily to family health issues that required him to spend more time and be involved at home.
