The former New Hanover County elections director has filed an appeal to overturn the state's decision to terminate her.
DeNay Harris, who started her role as elections director in January before being suspended in March and ultimately terminated in June, has filed an appeal in Wake County Superior Court seeking compensation and to be reinstated in her job, according to court documents from July 10. The filing alleges that county and local Board of Elections officials acted against state law by bypassing her authority on decisions regarding employee access to facilities.
While Harris' termination letter from N.C. State Board of Elections Director Sam Hayes has not been made public, the appeal filing states that she was terminated over failure to challenge
the ballot of deceased voters, failure of elections day responsibilities and procedures, false allegations of email tampering, public dissemination of unverified, false and misleading comprehensive statement, failure to implement transition plan and escalation of facility access issues, prior criminal conviction.
In the filing, Harris claims the decision to terminate her was "unsupported by substantial evidence" and is an "abuse of discretion." She is seeking damages in excess of $25,000, an overturning of the termination decision, to be reinstated as elections director, back pay and front pay for future wages if reinstatement is not immediately available.
Harris' disputes with the county began shortly after she got the job. In early March, Harris contacted the state elections board alleging that Assistant County Manager Lisa Wurtzbacher had entered secure election areas, bypassing security procedures. Wurtzbacher was appointed to assist in elections operations following the retirement of former director Rae Hunter-Havens, with her position expiring upon Harris' appointment.
On March 13, Harris alleged that her emails were being illegally monitored, diverted and deleted. A third-party analysis found no evidence of her claims, though it did note that her account was suspected of sending spam after she sent a mass welcome email for polling place workers to 686 recipients.
Following Harris' termination, Eric Navagh was appointed to the director role. Navagh has worked for the local Board of Elections since July 2025, most recently serving as the interim elections deputy director.
Daniel Sheehan covers New Hanover County for the StarNews. Reach him at dsheehan@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Former New Hanover elections director files appeal after termination
