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Dallas Woodhouse, the North Carolina state auditor’s former elections liaison, deleted text messages that were subject to public records requests “in direct contravention” of agency policy, according to a letter sent by the agency’s general counsel.
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Woodhouse, who spent most of his career as a Republican operative, was hired by Auditor Dave Boliek into the new and controversial position last year, in which he was tasked with coordinating with the state’s 100 county election board chairs as they planned voting.
But in recent months, a flurry of news stories broke in which leaked texts showed Woodhouse encouraging board members to cut Sunday voting and eliminate an on-campus polling site for the November midterms.
Many of those texts were released as part of public records requests filed with individual county boards of elections. But they do not appear to include the whole story.
This week, American Oversight, a left-leaning nonprofit watchdog organization focused on public records, published over 900 pages of documents it received from the auditor’s office after initially accusing the agency of failing to comply with its requests.
The latest records, which were first reported by NC Newsline, come with a letter from Wesleigh Stout, the Office of the State Auditor’s general counsel.
In it, Stout says that the agency’s legal division met with Woodhouse following news reports about his texts in July. They asked him to produce the published text messages, along with any other messages responsive to pending records requests.
“At that time, Mr. Woodhouse informed the Legal Affairs Division that the messages had been deleted from his phone in direct contravention of OSA policy and the instructions that Mr. Woodhouse previously received from OSA’s general counsel,” Stout wrote.
The agency then attempted to recover the missing texts from Verizon, but was unsuccessful. Following that, agency officials met with Woodhouse to download the remaining contents of his phone, though Stout acknowledged that this did not produce a complete record since some messages had not been backed up.
Shortly after the phone download occurred, Woodhouse resigned from the auditor’s office, saying that he had always intended his tenure to be short and focused on training new county board members. By the time he resigned, Woodhouse had already been reassigned to a non-elections role.
In a statement to The News & Observer, Woodhouse defended his work with the auditor’s office.
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“We were hit with constant records requests from day one, and I made every effort to comply fully,” he said. “It’s worth noting the letter you reference deals with records the organization in fact HAS in its possession, and they reveal my constant efforts to expand voting for all citizens.”
He went on to reference next week’s State Board of Elections meeting, in which the agency will decide on early voting plans for 20 counties that failed to agree on a schedule.
“Next week, 100 North Carolina county early voting plans will be in place adding total voting locations, hours and weekend hours compared to the last midterm election,” he said. “I am extremely proud of that result and have never had anything to hide. These plans were debated, voted and critiqued in the most transparent and public way possible. I have continued to answer requests for searches and any records AFTER I left my position when I was under no obligation to do so.”
Asked for a comment on the deleted texts, a spokesperson for the auditor’s office only said “Dallas resigned on July 13, 2026, and his resignation was accepted.”
Chioma Chukwu, American Oversight’s executive director, said officials should hold Woodhouse accountable for the missing texts.
“Woodhouse should be required to answer under oath what records he deleted, when, and why,” she said. “The records that survived show OSA officials working to influence local early voting decisions, from Sunday voting to polling sites on college campuses, while invoking Republican Party preferences and communicating with party officials about some of those decisions. They also raise serious questions about Auditor Boliek’s role in these efforts. The public deserves to know whether officials entrusted with overseeing elections used their positions to advance partisan interests and restrict voting access.”
American Oversight has asked the auditor’s office to hire a forensic expert to recover the deleted texts.
Last month, Jeff Carmon, a Democratic member of the State Board of Elections, unsuccessfully pushed for members to subpoena Woodhouse to answer questions about his communications with election officials. American Oversight urged the board to reconsider that decision at its meeting next week.
The state board has a 3-2 Republican majority, as do all 100 county boards of elections.
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This story was originally published August 14, 2026 at 3:01 PM.