Alamance elections board takes unusual step to resolve claims from sheriff’s campaign

The Alamance County Board of Elections took the extraordinary step Monday evening of reviewing two ballots to try to resolve questions raised by Sheriff Terry Johnson’s reelection campaign about whether his name was appearing on all ballots.

The bipartisan board found that two voters who had said they did not see the longtime sheriff’s name on their ballots had, in fact, voted for him.

The meeting was not the first time elections officials took up the complaints from the campaign of the man widely regarded as Alamance County’s most powerful and popular politician.

Johnson, a Republican, was first elected sheriff in 2002 and had no election challenger for the past two election cycles. This year he faces a challenge from Kelly White, a Democrat who is deputy chief of the police department of Winston-Salem State University.

On Nov. 5, Dawn Hurdle, Alamance County’s elections director, issued a news release in response to complaints from the sheriff’s campaign. “Elections staff verified that all candidates that are supposed to be on ballots are correctly listed,” the written statement said. “Any information a candidate is not on a ballot is not correct.”

In reaction, the Johnson campaign doubled down on its position, writing on Facebook that “voters have continued to insist that Terry Johnson was not on their ballot. Our campaign to educate voters will continue!”

Johnson’s supporters had been telling people on their way into polling places that there had been reports that Johnson’s name was not appearing on all ballots.

On Monday before the board met, the campaign pushed their claims further on social media, rejecting the idea that the campaign was spreading misinformation.

The campaign then accused county elections staff of failing to investigate voters’ reports and suggested that even examining the ballots of the two voters who first raised concerns was insufficient.

“Hopefully, the first two men who reported the sheriff’s name not being on the ballots were simply mistaken but what about all the others and what about the other race that is being questioned?” the campaign said on Facebook, providing no details on the other allegations.

A volunteer with the sheriff’s reelection campaign attended the 5 p.m. meeting where board members confirmed that the sheriff candidates are on the ballot.

In its post published before the meeting, the campaign alleged that state elections officials asked a federal agency to investigate the campaign’s Facebook activity.

Its first post alleging problems with the ballot was removed by Facebook, on the grounds that it constituted voter suppression, but it was later restored, the campaign said. Monday’s posts on the matter no longer appear on Facebook.

Neither the campaign nor the Alamance County elections director has yet responded to questions from The News & Observer.

Federal election monitors are in Alamance County to provide extra assurance to voters on Election Day.

Experts say the reported issue is unlikely

The most probable explanations for why some voters have said that they did not see the sheriff’s name on their ballot are that they voted too quickly or forgot, elections experts told The N&O.

“We have people every election cycle” making similar claims, said Trey Hood, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia.

“Most of the time when this happens — I’m not saying people are being deceitful on purpose — but it’s just, they just don’t remember,” he said.

The combination of electronic voting technology and the continued circulation of false claims that the 2020 election was stolen likely heightened voter suspicions, experts said.

“People fueled by the rhetoric, you know, are more likely to make an honest mistake and then make a lot of noise about it,” said Martha Kropf, a University of North Carolina Charlotte professor who studies election administration.

Alamance County uses a technology called ExpressVote for early voting. Voters make their selections on a touch screen, and the machine prints out a paper ballot that the voter can use to review their selections. The paper ballot is then inserted into the vote tabulator.

The technology went through extensive logic and accuracy testing before voting began, she said.

Hood and Kropf agree that a programming error is unlikely.

Any problems with names appearing would have come to light right away and almost certainly have been fixed immediately, Kropf said.

North Carolina’s system of bipartisan election boards ensures that both major political parties are able to closely observe all parts of the process, including post-election audits, she said.

Claims like those raised by Johnson’s campaign can have consequences far beyond his race, the professors said.

“If you’re sowing seeds of doubt about your election director,” Kropf said, “then it becomes easier to sow seeds of doubt, you know, in other parts of the ballot.”

This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 2:56 PM.