While the legal battle over last year’s N.C. Supreme Court election is now settled, it’s not the last unresolved election contest remaining in North Carolina.
A legal dispute over the 2023 election for mayor of the Robeson County town of Pembroke is still dragging on, heading now to the N.C. Court of Appeals.
The appeals court recently extended an order blocking elections officials from certifying the results — which means the losing candidate, incumbent Mayor Gregory Cummings, is continuing to serve in the role more than 18 months after he appears to have lost his re-election bid.
“The incumbent mayor has appealed at every turn to try to keep his election protest alive,” said Hart Miles, an attorney for Allen Dial, the mayoral candidate who county and state elections officials say won by 19 votes in November 2023. “It's an extraordinarily long period of time for this legal process to play out.”
Cummings is challenging the eligibility of 16 voters to participate in the local election. He says they registered to vote just a month before the election with assistance from Dial, who was allowing them to live rent-free in tents on commercial property he owns.
Neither Cummings nor his attorney, Jonathan Charleston, responded to inquiries from WUNC, but they argued in court filings that Dial’s actions and those of the voters amount to enough “fraud, improprieties and irregularities” for the state to order a new election.
Both the State Board of Elections and a Wake County Superior Court judge determined that the allegations wouldn’t affect the outcome of the race. Invalidating the 16 votes in question would simply leave Dial with a three-vote victory.
People who are homeless are allowed to vote in North Carolina, and the state’s voter registration form even includes the option to draw a map showing “where you live or normally sleep” rather than listing a formal street address.
Cummings hired a private investigator to review whether the voters were legitimate residents of Pembroke. The mayor’s attorney didn’t provide any evidence that the voters lived elsewhere at the time of the election, but he did take issue with the voters’ statements about their residency being notarized by Dial’s daughters — which they allege is a conflict of interest.
“Robeson County has a history of voting irregularities, and the State Board has the responsibility to ensure that elections are determined without taint of fraud or corruption,” Cummings’ attorney wrote in a legal filing, comparing the case to the 2018 voter fraud case in nearby Bladen County’s 9th Congressional District race. Evidence of fraudulent absentee ballots led to a new election in that race.
It’s not the first time that Cummings and Dial have faced off in Pembroke and disputed the election results. The 2015 election between the two men resulted in charges of vote-buying, and the state ordered a do-over of that election.
But it’s unusual for an election dispute to drag on for more than a year after Election Day. Some worry that in the wake of Judge Jefferson Griffin’s legal challenge to tens of thousands of voters in last year’s Supreme Court contest, more losing candidates could pursue drawn-out legal challenges.
That could advantage incumbents, whose terms are extended when elections for a new term aren’t certified. In the Supreme Court case, that meant Democratic Justice Allison Riggs continued to serve on the high court until she was formally sworn in this month after Griffin conceded.
Much like the Griffin-Riggs case, there’s a partisan dimension to the dispute, although municipal races in Robeson County are officially nonpartisan. Dial is a registered Democrat, while Cummings is a registered Republican.
The N.C. Democratic Party says the Pembroke case is concerning. "I believe everyone should be outraged,” spokeswoman Amanda Fitzpatrick said. “We are confident that, despite the Republicans' ongoing commitment to ignore the election results, the courts will uphold (elections board) decisions. The GOP and its leaders are making a habit of disregarding the will of the voters. We’ll be making sure people remember that in future elections.”
It’s unclear how quickly the Republican-majority Court of Appeals, which sided with Griffin in a decision that was overturned by a federal court judge, might rule on the Pembroke mayoral race. And if the case is appealed to the N.C. Supreme Court – or beyond – it could drag on for months more.
That would mean that even if Dial ultimately wins, his four-year term could be cut in half.
“(Dial) was excited about being mayor, and so it's certainly been frustrating,” Miles said. “Mr. Cummings had his opportunity for a hearing, had his opportunity to present any compelling evidence that there were illegal votes cast, and from our side of things, he failed.”
Pembroke is a town of 2,800 people that’s home to the headquarters of the Lumbee Tribe and UNC-Pembroke. Both Cummings and Dial are Lumbee. Voter turnout in 2023 was relatively low, with 197 votes cast for Dial and 178 for Cummings. According to the final State Board of Elections tally, two other voters cast write-in votes. Both were for Minnie Mouse.
