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GATESVILLE – The Gates County Board of Elections is looking for a new director.

Earlier last month, Clytia Riddick advised Christopher Eason, chair of the county’s Board of Elections, of her intent to resign the director’s position she has held for the past 15 years.

The Elections Board, at their regularly scheduled meeting on March 18, voted to accept Riddick’s resignation.

Eason said Riddick’s letter of resignation stated she would remain as Gates County’s Board of Elections Director through Friday, April 11.

“She said she got a job with a Board of Elections [office] in another county,” said Eason, answering a question of why Riddick is leaving Gates County.

As for the process to hire a new director, Eason said that starts with advertising the opening.

“The county [local government] handles that part,” Eason noted. “We receive the applications and from those we will select a new director. However, the State Board of Elections still has to approve the person we choose to hire.”

When asked about a timetable to have a new director in place, Eason said he hopes the process plays out quickly.

“I want to get someone as soon as possible,” he said. “Our two-year terms [for each of the five members of the Gates County Board of Elections) end in June. We can choose to be reappointed to another two-year term, but if that doesn’t happen then there’s the possibility of a new board making the decision about a new director.”

In the meantime, Eason there will be someone staffing the Board of Elections office after April 11.

“We have to keep those doors open,” he said.

As for Riddick’s current lawsuit against two Gates County local government officials, it’s not clear if those legal proceedings will continue after April 11.

At a court hearing on Feb. 24, Riddick filed a voluntary dismissal of her claim against the county prior to the start of the hearing.

However, three claims by Riddick remain against Gates County Manager Scott Sauer and Human Resources Director Warren Perry, acting individually within the scope of their jobs.

The first of those three claims is for tortious interference, which allows a plaintiff to claim damages against a defendant who intentionally interferes with a plaintiff’s business or contractual relationships.

The second claim is for illegal surveillance, alleging that Perry and Sauer acted in violation of North Carolina General Statute (NCGS) 15A 287 “by secretly listening to and/or recording the plaintiff’s conversations on a daily basis [through video security cameras that the defendant had installed in the Board of Elections office] and have attempted to use oral communication that they heard while illegally listening to the plaintiff’s conversations to harm the plaintiff in their effort to cause plaintiffs removal from her position as Director of the Gates County Board of Elections.”

The final claim against Perry and Sauer individually is for interference with civil rights. The claim alleges “that the defendants, motivated by the race of the plaintiff, have conspired to interfere with the exercise or enjoyment by the plaintiff of rights secured by the Constitutions of North Carolina, as contained in Article I, Section 1 of the North Carolina Constitution and Article I, Section 19 of the North Carolina Constitution.”

Sauer and Perry, through their attorney, have denied all accusations and filed earlier motions to dismiss each of those three claims. There was a hearing on Feb. 24 regarding that issue as well as a motion, filed by the two defendants, to stay discovery.

“At the hearing, the court granted the motion to stay discovery and has taken the other motions under advisement. Accordingly, it is unknown at this time as to what claims, if any, shall proceed to the discovery stage,” stated Mary Craven Adams of Womble Bond Dickinson (the county’s law firm).

A stay of discovery is a court order that prevents attorneys from both sides from exchanging discovery until a pending motion is decided.

Discovery refers to the pre-trial process where both parties involved in a lawsuit exchange information about the case, including potential witnesses and evidence, with the goal of gathering facts and preparing for trial; essentially, it’s the formal process of each side learning about the other’s case details to build their own strategy.