Allegations of voter intimidation during this season’s midterm elections have been largely overblown, officials from the state Board of Elections confirmed Tuesday.
FOX News and CNN reported Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Justice would be sending more than 400 elections monitors from its Civil Rights Division to 30 jurisdictions, including North Carolina, to gather information on whether voters were being subjected to different voting qualifications or procedures on the basis of race or color; and, among other things, whether voters with disabilities, including being unable to read or write, received assistance at the polls.
Xochitl Hinojosa, a spokesman for the department, told CJ Tuesday that, contrary to reports from the two major media outlets, North Carolina was not on the USDOJ’s radar this year. “We are not sending observers there,” Hinojosa said.
However, the USDOJ did send observers west of the Triangle, to neighboring Alamance County, in three previous election cycles — 2004, 2006, and 2008.
“I think that was because a commissioner or two had dared to ask about illegal aliens registering to vote,” Randy Jones of the Alamance County Sheriff’s Department said. “The result of the concern was the USDOJ sent poll watchers in to see that we didn’t do anything to ‘disenfranchise’ voters. They made no effort to look at voter fraud.”
Among the jurisdictions in 18 states targeted by the USDOJ in the recent election were Autauga County, Ala.; Dallas, Fort Bend, Galveston, Williamson, and Harris counties, Texas; Colfax County, Nebr.; Honolulu, Hawaii; Kane County, Ill.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Maricopa County, Ariz. (Maricopa County and Republican sheriff Joe Arpaio are already the target of a USDOJ lawsuit alleging unconstitutional searches and seizures.) In Harris County, Texas, Tea Party groups launched a massive anti-fraud effort and were accused of hovering over voters.
Wake and Buncombe county election leaders fielded complaints about overly aggressive poll observers during One-Stop early voting, Don Wright, general counsel for the N.C. Board of Elections, told Carolina Journal Tuesday. “I think they called the party chairman in and said, ‘look, y’all need to cool it,'” Wright said.
Wake elections officials reported last week that Republican poll observers had approached people inside early voting sites, leading to complaints from a couple dozen voters. Most of those observers were associated with U.S. House District 13 Republican candidate Bill Randall, Wake officials said.
Buncombe County elections officials declined to identify which group was responsible for the alleged voter intimidation, although a staff member at Buncombe’s board of elections told CJ Tuesday that some voters didn’t like campaign workers “coming up to them with pre-marked ballots.” This is legal under North Carolina law, as long as campaign workers conduct their activities no closer than 50 feet from the entrance to a polling place.
Wright said the complaints originated with observers who contacted voters directly. Under North Carolina law, observers can witness the operations inside precincts, but they are barred from having any direct contact with voters. The statute specifies that, “No person or group of persons shall hinder access, harass others, distribute campaign literature, place political advertising, solicit votes, or otherwise engage in election-related activity in the voting place or in a buffer zone.”
“If they are pushing around voters, they are removed,” Wright said. “If that’s happening, that’s certainly of concern, but we haven’t had any complaints sent to us.”
According to a statement released by the USDOJ Friday, the department deployed observers fluent in Spanish, Asian, and Native American languages.
Wright conceded that the state board has received complaints about optical scanners, which read and tabulate votes electronically. John Branch, attorney for the N.C. Republican Party, sent four inquiries to the state board about problems involving optical scanners, Wright said.
The state GOP filed a complaint against the Board of Elections in federal court Friday, alleging that touch-screen machines failed to record voters’ preferences accurately. The GOP claims to received complaints about problems with iVotronic machines in Mecklenberg, New Hanover, Randolph, Craven, Cumberland, Wilson, Pender, Forsyth, Lenoir, and other counties, according to a letter sent from Branch to Gary Bartlett, executive director of the elections board, and Wright last Thursday.
“It is the NC GOP’s understanding that, in almost all cases, the Democratic candidate is on the top line, and that, for the purpose of straight-ticket voting, the Democratic Party is on the top line,” Branch wrote. “The default reaction by the touch screen system may violate the equal protection rights of Republican voters.”
Wright says how or whether to enforce the statutory prohibition against direct contact with voters is left to local elections officials. “Intimidation is in the eye of the beholder.”
Kristy Bailey is a contributor to Carolina Journal.