The North Carolina State Board of Elections unanimously rejected a Rutherford County candidate’s request to use a religious mononym rather than a legal surname on the November ballot, while also moving toward new rules governing candidate filings.
The decision came Aug. 20 during the final 20 minutes of a meeting that lasted eleven hours with breaks. The board’s agenda included early-voting disputes involving county boards, campaign finance matters, county board vacancies, the candidate-name declaratory ruling, and complaints involving county election board members.
The board’s five members include three Republicans, Chairman Francis De Luca, Secretary Stacy “Four” Eggers IV, and Angela Hawkins, and two Democrats, Jeff Carmon and Siobhan O’Duffy Millen.
The candidate, Mortellus, is running for Rutherford Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor. CJ previously reported that Mortellus sought a formal ruling on whether North Carolina law permits the candidate to use a religious name instead of a legal name on the ballot.
At the Aug. 20 meeting, Adam Steele, associate general counsel for the State Board of Elections, explained that the dispute centered on four questions concerning candidate names, notices of candidacy, and the authority of election officials to correct filings.
“That’s kind of your two options,” Steele said. “You either use your legal name or a nickname as provided in state statute.”
Surname required
The board’s first question was whether state law requires every candidate to have a surname on the ballot or whether the board could recognize an established religious or mononymic identity.
Steele said North Carolina law governs both the candidate’s notice of candidacy and the name ultimately printed on the ballot.
He pointed to several statutes that govern notices of candidacy and address ballot content.
“In both of those statutes, it says that the candidate has to use their legal name, but their option is using a nickname,” Steele said.
Board member Millen proposed what he called going “old school” on the issue.
“You need a surname,” she said. “It needs to be your legal name or your nickname. And you need to give the clerk the ability to change it if they make an error.”
The board ultimately adopted narrower language. The approved motion states that state law requires a candidate’s surname to appear on the ballot when the candidate’s legal name includes a surname. The vote was unanimous.
According to state law, “The order in which candidates shall appear on official ballots in any election ballot item shall be either alphabetical order or reverse alphabetical order by the last name of the candidate, which order shall be determined each election by drawing at the State Board after the closing of the filing period for all offices on the ballot.”
Religious name not an exception
The board separately considered whether North Carolina law recognizes a religious name as a category different from a nickname.
The board approved a motion stating that a candidate’s ballot name must be the candidate’s legal name or a nickname permitted by state law. A different name may not be used unless it satisfies the statutory requirements for a nickname.
The board deliberately avoided creating a test for religious names.
“We generally do not second guess anyone’s religious beliefs,” Eggers said. “And we don’t want to get in the business of doing that. State law does not provide the use of another name unless it meets the requirements of a nickname.”
The discussion highlighted a practical problem with creating a religious name exception. Election officials would potentially have to decide whether a claimed religious identity was genuine, whether a particular belief system qualified as a religion, and whether the requested name was actually religious.
“I think trying to get into what our standards for determining a bona fide religious name would be problematic,” Eggers said.
The motion passed unanimously.
Filing dispute also addressed
The board also addressed what election officials can do when a candidate submits a notice of candidacy that does not comply with state law.
The board adopted a motion stating that the State Board and county boards of elections have authority to recognize and correct errors in the completion or processing of a notice of candidacy.
Mortellus, who identifies as non-binary, will have their name appear as Mortellus Amorello on the ballot with the five other candidates.
Rulemaking could follow
The board did not stop with the declaratory ruling. Members also voted unanimously to direct staff to begin the rulemaking process after the declaratory ruling becomes final. Steele supported the move.
The potential rulemaking could give county election officials more explicit guidance on candidate names, notices of candidacy, corrections, and related filing procedures
The candidate name issue came after a lengthy day of election business.
The State Board spent much of the meeting considering early voting plans that had not been unanimously adopted by county boards involving disagreements over locations, dates, or times. Sunday voting is not required under state law, but is an option for counties. The counties, listed in alphabetical order, included Anson, Chatham, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Granville, Greene, Guilford, Harnett, Jackson, Lee, Lenoir, Nash, Pasquotank, Pitt, Rockingham, Rowan, Scotland, Union and Wayne.
The board also considered complaints involving members of the Cumberland and Anson County boards of elections.
The State Board also announced earlier in the meeting that it selected ReFrame Solutions for a $2.2 million contract to replace North Carolina’s more than 20-year-old campaign finance reporting system.
For more details about early voting times and locations, visit the state board of elections website.
