State elections officials on Thursday announced the resignation of James Yokeley, a county-level elections leader who faces accusations of drugs, child abuse and other crimes.
After Republicans seized control of election boards across the state earlier this year, Yokeley was appointed chairman of the Surry County Board of Elections by Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek. On Thursday, Boliek called for Yokeley to resign due to his criminal charges — and for the state elections board to at least strip him of his title as board chairman if he won’t resign.
Yokeley resigned shortly after, according to the State Board of Elections.
“The arrest and investigation of the Surry County Board of Elections Chair is very disturbing,” Boliek said Thursday. “This matter distracts from election management in Surry County and must be addressed quickly and directly. Our office is built on holding individuals accountable. He needs to resign, and Surry County needs a new Board of Elections chair.”
Boliek later said Yokeley’s resignation will allow Surry County to move forward quickly to find a replacement.
Yokeley has not been convicted of any crimes related to the incident. WRAL reported Wednesday that he was in Wilmington earlier this week with two granddaughters, when police accused him of slipping pills containing cocaine and MDMA into the girls’ Dairy Queen blizzards.
Arrest warrants show Yokeley himself called the police originally, claiming his granddaughters had found pills in their treats, but that a review of video surveillance footage showed Yokeley was the one who slipped the drugs.
Dairy Queen didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Surry County is no stranger to scandals involving its election board members. Yokeley himself only joined the board after both of its Republican members were kicked off the elections board in 2023 by state election officials for promoting election denial conspiracy theories and refusing to certify local election results despite having no evidence of fraud.
Other Republican leaders in the area, a rural part of the state north of Winston-Salem and home to Mount Airy, have also pushed conspiracy theories about voting. In 2022 the county commissioners invited Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who has spread numerous false claims about voter fraud, to come speak at one of their board meetings.
The county’s professional elections director also reported receiving death threats because of conspiracy theories about elections, WRAL reported, and sometimes had to request police protection for her staff at the county elections office.