Veteran North Carolina lawmakers protested Friday in a primary election in which they narrowly lost, alleging errors in ballot distribution and counting, as well as campaigning at illegal voting sites, casting doubt on the results.
Democratic state Rep. Michael Ray, who joined the state House of Representatives in 2005, filed a complaint with the election board for Halifax, Northampton and Warren counties, which are located northeast of Raleigh and make up the 27th Congressional District. .
As of Friday afternoon, Halifax County teacher Rodney Pearce had a 35-vote lead over Ray out of nearly 12,000 votes cast in last week’s primary. The winner will not face Republican opposition in the fall.
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Mr. Wray has been criticized by outside groups and other Democrats for at times aligning himself with leaders of the Republican-majority House, where he has been appointed as one of the senior chairs of the powerful Finance Committee. Ta.
Pearce asked Ray to make concessions, saying, “It seems like they want to change the rules just because they lost more than a week after the contest ended.” Several groups supporting Pearce’s election issued news releases calling the accusations “bogus” and “dirty tricks.”
North Carolina State Capitol photographed in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images)
Protesters say Wray is disputing what happened with more than a dozen voters, some of whom received the wrong primary ballots. He also alleges that Democratic poll watchers in the Halifax County election violated election and enforcement laws by instructing voters to choose Mr. Pearce.
“We are not contesting the votes that have been cast and counted. We are simply asking the County Commission not to unfairly reject any votes,” Ray said in a news release. said. “We just want to make sure every valid ballot is counted.”
Each county board within the 27th District will meet to decide whether to dismiss each protest or gather evidence and hold a public hearing. The Warren and Halifax boards were scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider Ray’s appeal.
The current vote difference between Mr. Pierce and Mr. Wray could allow Mr. Wray to request a recount, but he said Friday that he would wait until the race results are certified.
The protest was filed on the same day that election boards in all 100 counties were scheduled to complete final counts for the March 5 primary. The Warren Commission delayed completing the election results in light of the protests, said Debbie Formy-Duvall, the campaign manager.
Ahead of Friday’s election, county commissioners reviewed details about more than 11,000 provisional absentee or in-person ballots to decide whether to add them to the initial count. The state election board election is March 26th.
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Aside from Mr. Wray’s possible defeat, three other General Assembly incumbents are Republicans: Democratic Sen. Mike Woodard of Durham County, Rep. George Cleveland of Onslow County and Rep. Kevin Crutchfield of Cabarrus County. A member of Congress lost the primary election.
