NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The elections director for New Hanover County has formally opposed her removal to the state board of elections.
New Hanover County Board of Elections filed a petition to terminate DeNay Harris’ earlier this spring. Her attorney, Gary Shipman with Shipman Wright & Moore, LLP, filed a response against the move and said he could not share documents or details contained therein upon questioning by Port City Daily. However, Shipman called the county BOE’s move “clearly pretextual, retaliatory, and unsupported by reliable evidence.”
READ MORE: Petition process initiated to remove NHC elections director
ALSO: ‘Between the offices’: Relationship between NHC election director and county manager on shaky ground
Harris had 15 days to submit a response. State board executive director Sam Hayes will have the final say, unless the state board decides to intervene and conduct a hearing. The State Board of Elections has 20 days to make the decision to dismiss or retain Harris. Should it decide to conduct a hearing, Harris could be asked to state her case before the board.
In a statement Friday, Harris wrote: “The community in New Hanover County depends on the director of elections to uphold the law and maintain honest, fair, and transparent elections. That is not something I take lightly — it is the foundation of the position.”
When asking Shipman if his client plans to pursue legal action should her termination go through, he said Harris expects to “fully be back at work.” She concurred, noting she “looks forward to working with the State Board of Elections to get back to work protecting the integrity of the election process in New Hanover County.”
But if it doesn’t happen, Shipman said Harris is keeping “all options open.”
Since the end of March, Harris has been on paid administrative leave, with the county continuing to compensate her salary, $115,000 annually, as the process of her potential removal plays out. The New Hanover County Board of Elections met in a three-hour closed session at the end of March following a detailed joint report by Port City Daily and WHQR detailing Harris’ fallout with the county and board in her short two-month tenure.
Though no action was taken on the record, other than stating Harris would remain on paid leave, a lengthy statement was read by Board Chair Jamie Getty noting the board conducted two successful elections aided by the county, to which she thanked them for their help. More so, she maintained disparaging county staff and public servants was unacceptable and, “despite a prior history of division between county and election leadership … those days are behind us, and we will not go back.”
Harris’ job came under fire back in March following the primary election, when the elections director accused the county and some board of elections members for bullying, retaliation and email tampering. However, a preliminary report of a third-party audit on Harris’ computer and Microsoft account did not return evidence of outside tampering.
Harris was hired in January this year, with Chair Getty telling Port City Daily at the time she had “strong operational knowledge and leadership skills” that appealed to the board.
She officially started her position on Feb. 3, taking over from the county manager’s executive aide Crystal Whittaker, appointed interim director last December. Whittaker was taking over the reins from her coworker, Assistant County Manager Lisa Wurtzbacher, who was appointed special assistant to the board of elections and helped run the municipal election following the retirement of former director Rae Hunter-Havens in October 2025.
Wurtzbacher and Whittaker are county employees. For some, their appointments blurred the lines of statutory separation, as local boards of elections are intended to be independent and accountable to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. County staff answer to commissioners; however, commissioners approve the annual budget of the county board of elections and paid for the board’s new elections building.
As previously reported by Port City Daily and WHQR, Harris accused Wurtzbacher and Whittaker of “micromanaging” her on the job. Harris also blamed county staff of potentially violating state laws around secured election facilities and emailed the State Board of Elections her concerns.
After Harris’ correspondence to the state, her relationships with County Manager Chris Coudriet and elections board members started souring. In a heated email exchange between Coudriet and Harris on March 4, Coudriet told Harris he “would be the judge on what level of county resources, to include facilities, that we now choose to extend to you.”
Thereafter, Harris filed an HR complaint, claiming her email was being monitored, manipulated and erased, in an effort for the county to undermine her position.
Harris is the second director in six months to potentially be exiting the county’s BOE director position. Her predecessor, Hunter-Havens, abruptly resigned after enduring a harried relationship with the county. Hunter-Havens stepped back “due to health concerns” she said last fall and was paid $70,000 as a consultant through April 1. Harris claims Hunter-Havens was “forced to retire” and she was instructed to not reach out to the former director during Harris’ transition, which board Chair Getty has denied on the record.
Port City Daily reached out to the BOE chair and all members to ask for their responses to Harris’ filing. Chair Getty was the only one to answer by press, noting she did not have a comment.
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