LUMBERTON — Allegations of vote buying and election fraud aren’t unique to Robeson County.
But with claims of election irregularities prompting three do-over election in as many years, state elections officials say they will be watching closely during the March 15 primary.
“I am not able at this time to make any direct comparison between Robeson and other counties within the state — to do so would be conjectural on my part,” said Joshua Lawson, the attorney for the State Board of Elections. “… But we are keeping a close watch on what goes on in Robeson County.”
Lawson said Robeson has been “featured most publicly” when it comes to voter fraud allegations in North Carolina.
According to state elections officials earlier this month, there had been about 35 requests statewide for investigations of local elections from November, including two in Robeson County.
The state has called for a do-over election on March 15 of the Precinct 7 race for a seat on the Lumberton City Council, where there are allegations of vote-buying, as well as the race for mayor of Pembroke, which was marred by questions over whether voters truly lived at the addresses they gave when they cast their ballots.
The state BOE made its latest trip to Robeson on Jan. 19, when officials reviewed the Nov. 3 race for the Precinct 7 seat and Pembroke mayor. After reviewing all of the evidence in both races, the state BOE declared there were sufficient election irregularities, including systematic errors by the Robeson County Board of Elections, to declare the elections tainted and require new elections be held on March 15.
During the January hearing, Mathew Martucci, in response to questions from Joshua Malcolm, a state board member from Pembroke, said that during his seven months working as an investigator with the state BOE, he had not seen an investigation of vote-buying similar to that in Robeson County in any other county in the state.
At the recommendation of Malcolm, the five-member state board agreed to have all of the information obtained by the state during its investigation of vote buying in the Precinct 7 race be turned over to the the SBI and the federal attorney for Eastern North Carolina for review and possible criminal prosecution. Lawson confirmed that the information has been forwarded to the law enforcement agencies for their review.
Martucci testified during January’s hearing that there were vote buying allegations against both candidates. The evidence of vote buying in the Precinct 7 race is allegedly a check signed by incumbent Leon Maynor and given to a voter on the day that he went to the polls to cast his ballot.
Repeated attempts to reach Maynor were unsuccessful.
Wixie Stephens, the campaign manager for challenger Laura Sampson, said that if there are allegations of vote buying against Sampson they have not been brought to the attention of Sampson or her campaign. This is the third time since 2007 Sampson has tried to unseat Maynor.
“There were allegations against Laura back in 2007 that were dismissed by the district attorney,” Stephens said. “We’ve been real careful during our campaign. We haven’t even given away a pen.”
Stephens and Sampson have both told The Robesonian they have not been able to find out from the state or anyone else what allegations have been made against Sampson.
“Even our attorney has attempted to find out about any allegations and no one has told us anything. You would think if there were allegations they would tell us what they are,” Sampson said.
In Pembroke, Allen Dial was the highest vote-getter for mayor, followed by Greg Cummings, 11 votes behind. A do-over of a Pembroke council race was also ordered in 2013 after about a dozen ballots were found to have been improperly cast by people voting out of district.
As investigations into the Nov. 3 races continue, the inquiry into the 2013 municipal races has yet to be finished.
“The alleged voter fraud allegations are massive in the 2013 municipal election,” said Erich Hackney, an investigator with the District Attorney’s Office, noting a “tremendous” number of people are involved, many of whom have been interviewed.
Hackney said the pages of documents he’s culled in the investigation number in the thousands. No charges have been filed related to the 2013 elections.
