Democratic NC lawmaker who lost files protests alleging voting irregularities
Elections officials will look into allegations by a state lawmaker from northeastern North Carolina who says irregularities cast doubt on the election results that unseated him last week.
Democratic Rep. Michael Wray, who has served 20 years in the legislature, has filed three separate protests regarding the results of the House District 27 race, which he lost by a thin margin.
Wray lost to Rodney Pierce, a social studies teacher, by a margin of 0.36% or 42 votes, which is within the 1% threshold for a mandatory recount for a non-statewide ballot item.
This loss followed criticism by the Young Democrats of North Carolina and other party-affiliated groups, regarding Wray’s votes supporting some bills backed by Republicans.
Wray filed protests in Halifax, Northampton and Warren counties, which make up the district, alleging improper campaigning at a polling place, that voters were provided incorrect ballots and that ballots were lost or not counted.
Some left-leaning environmental and labor groups spoke out against Wray’s challenges and called on him to concede defeat, including the League of Conservation Voters, Carolina Foward, the NC State AFL-CIO and UNITE HERE Local 23.
Wray has not yet filed a request for a recount of votes, according to Pat Gannon, spokesperson for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Wray vs. Pierce
Pierce criticized Wray’s actions on Friday.
“When we hold elections, we make voters a promise: if they participate in the process, their voices will be heard. It’s not perfect — our state in particular has a dark history when it comes to denying the will of the people, and especially of Black voters,” Pierce wrote in an email statement. Pierce is Black and Wray is white.
“On Tuesday, the people of House District 27 turned out and chose me to represent them,” Pierce said. “Now, my opponent seems to want to change the rules more than a week after the contest ended, just because he lost. That is not how our elections and our democracy are supposed to work.
“In a time of a crisis of faith in our institutions, spreading conspiracy theories about our election process is wrong and it has real consequences,” said Pierce, who is also the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit challenging a new Republican-drawn electoral map.
Wray said in an email statement that “we appreciate the county boards of elections looking at the questions we have raised. We are not challenging any votes that were cast and counted. We are simply asking the county boards to ensure that they did not improperly reject any ballots.”
“Our campaign has never asked for rules to be changed and we are following the procedure set forth in North Carolina law. We simply want to ensure that all valid ballots are counted,” he said.
This is not the first time protests against election results have been filed in the state. In 2016, former Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, filed over a dozen protests in the gubernatorial race against Democrat Roy Cooper, who won and has since been reelected as governor.
In 2022, former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley filed a protest alleging thousands of ballots were wrongfully rejected by county boards after she lost her reelection bid for the high court.
She was unsuccessful and conceded her defeat to Republican Paul Newby, who is the current chief justice.
What does Michael Wray allege?
Among the allegations in Wray’s complaints:
- The protest in Halifax alleges that three registered Democratic voters were provided Republican ballots. It also says that some provisional ballots were not counted that should have been counted and that a person registered as a poll observer for the Halifax County Democratic Party in a precinct actively campaigned and went against state law by handing out sample ballots in favor of Pierce.
The Warren protest says that three voters were provided an incorrect ballot not matching their party affiliation, that one voter was unable to vote early in person, that another had their ballot lost and that some ballots may have been accidentally misidentified.
- The Northampton protest focuses on just one voter and alleges that this voter only had her ballot partially counted because she was provided an incorrect ballot and should be allowed to cast a full Democratic ballot.
Kristin Scott, director of the Halifax board of elections, told The N&O in an email that the board is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday to conduct the preliminary hearing.
Warren County will have its preliminary hearing at noon Tuesday, said Debbie Formyduval, director of the Warren board.
State law says that following a protest, county boards of elections should meet as soon as possible after the protest is filed to see if the protest is valid and “whether it establishes probable cause to believe that a violation of election law or irregularity or misconduct has occurred.” If the board determines that the protest is valid, it must schedule a hearing, according to state law.
If during those hearings, a county determines there was “substantial evidence to believe that a violation of the election law or other irregularity or misconduct did occur,” and might have affected election results, but the board is unable to determine the effect because the election was a multi-county election, then the county board’s decision will be sent to the state board for further action.
This story was originally published March 15, 2024 at 12:54 PM.
