“It’s incredibly irresponsible for Gov. McCrory to allow these poorly researched accusations against voters to continue,” said Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy North Carolina. “He and his allies are exposing themselves to charges of slandering voters.”
“[McCrory] and his allies are exposing themselves to charges of slandering voters.” –Bob Hall, Democracy NC
Claims of widespread fraud are being repeated over and over. In reality, the number of votes contested in the McCrory campaign protests are very small and many of the claims are completely false.
Using records from the NC Department of Public Safety and State Board of Elections, Democracy North Carolina examined the status of all 43 individuals in 20 counties who are the target of felony voting protests received by the State of Board as of November 20.
Of the 43 individuals, 19 (or 44%) are not serving felony sentences, according to NCDPS records. Thirteen of the 43 accused voters are on probation for misdemeanor violations, which do not terminate their right to vote. A person on probation or parole for a felony conviction may not legally vote in North Carolina, but citizens with an active misdemeanor sentence may still register and vote.
In addition, 6 of the 43 voters are not serving any sentence at all. “Honest voters are being maligned by sloppy research – some might even say gross negligence – just to create the impression that widespread fraud has ruined an election,” said Hall. “It’s shameful and it should stop.”
Democracy North Carolina is asking reporters not to publicly identify the names of wrongly accused individuals without their permission. A list of the 43 and those incorrectly called felons is available upon request.
One of the 6 completely misidentified voters is a white Republican in his 20s; three others were confused with family members because of the Sr. or Jr. in their names.
Meanwhile, last night Greene County joined Halifax County in dismissing an unsubstantiated claim that a Black community group was illegally signing or “harvesting” absentee ballots. The Greene County Board of Elections staff conducted an investigation and the Republican-controlled board dismissed the claim as having no merit. The McCrory campaign says it filed absentee-voting protests involving African-American groups in about a dozen counties, without providing evidence of any wrongdoing in the county.
“The biggest fraud here is the McCrory operatives filing dozens of false charges that damage the reputation of voters, election officials, and the voting process,” said Hall.