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NC elections board, citing fraud probe, rejects Green Party for ballot

NCSBE

Story updated at 5:18 p.m.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections rejected the Green Party’s petition for their candidates to appear on November ballots Thursday, citing its ongoing fraud investigation that questions the validity of more than 2,000 signatures that party officials turned in to qualify.

The board denied the North Carolina Green Party bid in a 3-2 party-line vote, with three Democrats voting against certification and two Republicans voting in favor.

The decision will lead the left-leaning Green Party to miss Friday’s deadline to nominate candidates, meaning the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties will be the only ones with candidates for races like U.S. Senate, House and the state legislature.

Michael Bitzer, a politics professor at Catawba College in Salisbury, said if the Green Party had received certification, it might have divided progressive voters and paved the way for GOP victories in tight races, including the hotly contested Senate race between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican U.S. Rep. Ted Budd.

“The Green Party is the more progressive, more liberal side of North Carolina politics,” Bitzer said this week. “Democrats could see a real concern about the Green Party spoiling efforts for Beasley and perhaps other candidates.”

Green Party representatives earlier this year submitted more than 22,000 signatures to the board. County boards of election validated just under 16,000 of those signatures — seemingly catapulting them over the 13,865-signature threshold set in state law.

But several county boards in May alerted the state board of irregularities, elections board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said, and the number of questioned signatures were enough to cast doubt on the outcome. She cited examples on submitted petition lists of similar handwriting, incomplete personal information including partial dates of birth, and duplicate voters.

“We feel like there is a cloud over how many signatures are valid,” Bell said at Thursday’s board meeting. “There’s just a lot of concern around what we’re finding, and the amount of irregularities and possible fraud that have been identified already within the signature pages that we have received.”

The board said the investigation also identified 145 signatories who sought to revoke their signatures, three individuals who claim they did not sign the petition and several signatures from deceased voters.

“What this seems to indicate to us is a submission of signature sheets from when the Green Party had a petition effort prior to 2018,” Bell said.

Katelyn Love, legal counsel to the board, said the investigation could warrant criminal action for those found guilty of signing the name of another individual.

Republican board members Tommy Tucker and Stacy “Four” Eggers pushed the board to vote Thursday, despite Chair Damon Circosta’s recommendation to delay the review and allow more time for the investigation.

Prior to Thursday’s meeting, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee acknowledged contacting signatories on the Green Party’s petition to request they retract their signatures. The DSCC is working to get Beasley and the party's other Democratic Senate candidates nationwide elected in November.

“We’re reaching out to voters to ensure they have not been deceived,” DSCC spokesperson Amanda Sherman Baity said.

Other outside organizations, including Elias Law Group, an influential Democrat-aligned law firm that serves as the DSCC’s general counsel, submitted letters alerting the board of some discrepancies included in the investigation.

Oliver Hall, a lawyer for the Green Party, accused the board of kowtowing to the Green Party’s political opponents, calling the decision an anti-democratic effort to suppress voter choice.

“The board is selectively relying on evidence submitted by partisan operatives acting for their own political advantage and disregarding the facts in the record as they recognize them,” Hall said in an interview after the meeting.

The campaign of Matthew Hoh, who was considered the Green Party's U.S. Senate candidate, said in a news release that it “will continue and explore all options for its rightful place on the ballot.”

North Carolina Green Party Co-Chair Tony Ndege called the actions by the state board "absolutely unprecedented to essentially ignore the county boards just because they feel that some signatures may be invalid."

He stated he has worked at ballot access for the party all across the U.S. and found the decision by the board to be "the worst election board ruling" he has ever encountered.

Futhermore, Ndege called the decision "grossly undemocratic and unethically overruled the correct decisions of the county boards and the democratic participation of the people."

WUNC's Joe Jurney contributed to this report.


Story updated at 4:29 p.m.

The Green Party will not be recognized as a political party in North Carolina after a Thursday vote by the State Board of Elections.

The board cited an ongoing investigation into evidence of fraud and other irregularities in the petition process used to seek ballot access for the party, according to a news release from the board. The vote was 3-2.

If the Green Party had been recognized, party candidates could have appeared on ballots for the upcoming November general election. Also, North Carolina voters would be allowed to register as affiliated with the party.

During the past several weeks, county boards of elections in the state validated enough signatures by registered voters to put the party over the 13,865 required for recognition under state law.

However, as county boards reviewed party petition sheets and later as the State Board of Elections examined these petitions, several counties and the board staff identified numerous irregularities, the release states. That is when the State Board opened the investigation into the apparent irregularities.

So far, the investigation has found numerous petition pages containing signs of fraud or other irregularities. This includes signatures that had previously been approved by the county boards.

The State Board of Elections said the irregularities include:

  • The same handwriting throughout a petition page and/or signatures that clearly appear to be written by the same person. It is illegal to sign the name of another person to a petition.
  • Three signature-gathering contractors hired for this petition collected 1,472 signatures, but only 624 were accepted. At least three workers were paid by the signature collected. 
  • Voters apparently signed petitions more than once.
  • Voters whose names appear on the signature sheets claim they never signed the petition.
  • Petition sheets include deceased voters or voters long-removed from the voter registration files, indicating submission of signature sheets from a past Green Party petition drive.
  • Signature pages identify a long-ago Green Party chair, also indicating submission of outdated signatures.

North Carolina Green Party Co-Chair Tony Ndege called the actions by the state board "absolutely unprecedented to essentially ignore the county boards just because they feel that some signatures may be invalid."
He stated he has worked at ballot access for the party all across the U.S. and found the decision by the board to be "the worst election board ruling" he has ever encountered.

Futhermore, Ndege called the decision "grossly undemocratic and unethically overruled the correct decisions of the county boards and the democratic participation of the people."

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