Cabarrus County officials dismiss GOP candidates claims of election tampering
CONCORD, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Cabarrus County election officials unanimously denied two Republican candidates’ protests Monday.
N.C. House candidates Holly Edwards and Kevin Crutchfield say members of their own party unfairly influenced last month’s primary races in favor of their opponents. They now plan to appeal to the State Board of Elections.
“It’s an understatement to say misconduct,” said Edwards. “It’s deceiving the voters. It’s not right.”
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A conservative group called We The People endorsed Edwards’ opponent, Jason Almond, and Crutchfield’s opponent in District 82, Brian Echevarria.
Edwards said the group created a flyer which looks like a sample ballot. She said they designed it to look very similar to the “yellow sheet” the Cabarrus County GOP puts out for general elections.
Edwards said she is not upset she did not earn the endorsement, but rather that the group misrepresented themselves.
“If that had said that ‘This is We The People, and these are just the people who we support, we don’t support the others,’ then that’s fine. There’s really nothing wrong with that,” she said. “But when you try to portray that it’s actual candidates being endorsed by the GOP, which I am a part of, I do have a problem with that.”
Queen City News sent a message to We The People on Facebook, but did not hear back Tuesday.
Crutchfield and Edwards claim the group and their fellow candidates engaged in “electioneering” violations by distributing the flyers and intimidating voters in precinct parking lots.
The Cabarrus County Board of Elections dismissed their claims as they found there was no probable cause to show any elections law was broken.
Edwards claims a voter told her they saw We The People-sponsored campaign materials taped to the inside of some voting booths. The county’s elections director Carol Soles said she investigated the claim while Edwards was in her office.
“I, immediately, while she was standing there, called our chief judge for that precinct. And that chief judge informed me that because of a prior problem at one of our other precincts, every 10 minutes she makes a sweep of all her voting booths to make sure there are pens in there and make sure there aren’t any campaign fliers in there,” Soles said. “I later asked Holly who it was that the person spoke to. She said it was the person at the tabulator. So I called the chief judge back. She had four people working at the tabulator that day. She spoke to all four of them, and they never found anything.”
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In the protest form, Edwards collected letters from 26 voters in support or as witnesses to the alleged electioneering attempts. Several people wrote they felt deceived by We The People’s materials, others wrote they felt physically threatened by representatives of the group.
Almond, who received 583 more votes than Edwards, said he is already looking past the issue and hopes to keep a cordial working relationship with his opponent.
“I’ve been in Raleigh meeting some party members, really trying to formulate a plan and staying forward focused on November. That’s our goal right now,” Almond said. “That’s really all we’re thinking about now that we have this ruling, and really honestly since March fifth.”
Lanny Lancaster, Cabarrus County’s Republican Party chairman, ( https://cabarrus.nc.gop/ ) sent the following statement:
“The Cabarrus Republican Party is grateful for a robust slate of conservative candidates who ran in the recent primary. Our party leadership is grateful for the unanimous decision of the Board of Elections and we are already working hard to see every Republican win in November.”
Soles said she feels these kinds of claims give officials a chance to strengthen confidence in the democratic process.
“I love when someone comes into my office and says, ‘Tell me about election fraud. Tell me about being attached to the Internet.’ And I love to go through all the things about our testing and all the steps we take, all the training, all our precinct operations,” Soles said. “I really look at that as a challenge and I love to be able to educate people to the process.
Queen City News could not reach Crutchfield for comment Tuesday.
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