NHC elections director DeNay Harris speaks out following Board of Elections special meeting
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — “Do you expect that you will be fired? Oh, yeah, absolutely.”
New Hanover County Elections Director DeNay Harris did not mince words about her future.
On Monday, the county Board of Elections held a special meeting regarding her position.
After a nearly 3-hour-long closed session, the board announced no action would be taken against Harris, but she would remain on non-disciplinary administrative leave with pay until “the conclusion of the review of the matter.”
Harris claimed she had issues with several individuals, like assistant county manager Lisa Wurtzbacher,
“Yes, I said that, she is a micromanager,” Harris said.
County manager executive aide Crystal Whittaker,
“She came off very aggressive. Everyone that she name-dropped are individuals who have, who have the authority to determine if I stay or if I go.”
And county manager Chris Coudriet,
“This is not a personal issue; this is an ego issue. I do believe there is a issue he has with women. He does not respect women in leadership.”
New Hanover County Board of Elections chair Jamie Getty said, “That is not my experience. There are women in high-level positions within the county.”
Harris said everything was fine until she sent an email about access to election buildings to Coudriet.
She then began claiming her emails were being tampered with by the county, and there may have been a racist element when authorities came to get her laptop.
“Do I think it plays a part? Kind of yes, and the reason is because if this happened to any other director that was Caucasian, they wouldn’t have sent 3 officers. They sent 3 police officers to my house to pick up a laptop.”
Getty says, “that was to establish the chain of custody and hand off to a 3rd party vendor.
WWAY obtained the results of the two independent reviews of Harris’ computer, which found no evidence of any remote access or unauthorized connections.
As far as emotional trauma caused by this situation, Harris said something surprising during our interview.
“I have PTSD. I actually, my PTSD started in 2020 from elections. I was able to manage to get out of that funk and to fight for what I believe in. Knowing that this is something that the Board is trying to use against me, it’s distasteful.”
When asked what message Harris had for the county:
“I don’t have a message to the county, I have a message to the voters. Come out and vote, take, take the time and thoroughly read and research the people that you guys vote into these offices.”
Getty agrees and said, “We encourage people to vote and assure the people that New Hanover County conducts elections transparently and fairly.”
Under state law, only the State Board of Elections can remove an elections director from their position, which begins when a petition is sent by their county’s Board of Elections.
The NHC Board of Elections did not confirm or deny whether they had sent a petition to the state Board of Elections last night.
