Voting irregularities found again in Lenoir
November 17,2006
BOB SHILES View stories by reporter
STAFF WRITER

For the third consecutive election, more than the usual number of voting irregularities have been recorded in Lenoir County. The biggest error came in one voting district where 232 ballots were cast in a district that has only 85 registered voters.

“I don’t know what all the issues are, but it is safe to say that we (commissioners) will be meeting with the Board of Elections,” George Graham, chairman of the Lenoir County Board of Commissioners, said Thursday. “We need to discuss what’s been happening so that better service can be provided to voters in the future.”

The Board of Elections works for the county’s board of commissioners. Graham said that problems occurring at the polls during the May 2 primary, second state House District 10 GOP primary on Sept. 12, and Nov. 7 general election appear to have centered around the county’s use of new voting machines and the lack of necessary training for poll workers.

“We (commissioners) recognize that there are new machines being used and a need for training exists,” Graham said. “But we didn’t expect these mistakes.”

The latest voting snafu took place Nov. 7 in the (Kinston) K-5 Precinct, which encompasses both the 10th and 12th state House Districts. The K-5 Precinct includes the area surrounding Rhodes Avenue, Perry Drive, Plaza Boulevard and West Road.

In the K-5 Precinct, 207 voters who were supposed to receive 12th District ballots were given ballots containing the 10th District race. The 10th District includes Greene County and parts of Lenoir and Wayne counties.

Although a significant error, the margins in the races won by Democrat Van Braxton and Rep. William Wainwright, D-Craven, were large enough that the outcomes won’t be affected.

The 207 ineligible votes added to the 10th District House race in K-5, where only 85 voters are eligible to cast ballots, makes it appear that there was a 279 percent turnout of voters in that precinct. Taking the total number of District 10 and District 12 votes cast in their respective races, however, puts the K-5 precinct turnout correctly at about 35 percent.

Unofficial results in that district gave Braxton 176 votes, while 56 were recorded for his opponent, Willie Ray Starling. Ironically, Wainwright was also given 176 votes, while his opponent, John Wetherington, garnered 65 votes.

Dana King, director of the Lenoir County Board of Elections, said Thursday that it was just a result of human error that the 207 ballots were incorrectly distributed to voters.

“We found out mid-morning that the same ballot was being given to both District 10 and District 12 voters,” King said. “The problem was corrected by mid-morning.”

King added that a review of all other precincts indicated that there were no other wrong ballots issued.

However, Starling — who lost to Braxton in the 10th District House race — said that he isn’t sure wrong ballots weren’t distributed at other split district voting precincts.

“How many other voters got the wrong ballots?” Starling asked. “I have had people call and tell me that when they tried to tell poll workers that they had voted wrong because they had not been given the proper ballot, they were told that it was their mistake.”

Braxton on Thursday defended the mistakes made by poll workers.

“The biggest thing we have to remember is that most of the people that work at the polls are volunteers. They don’t do this every day,” he said. “We need to provide the proper training and make it as easy as possible for these people to follow the guidelines.

“Also, we should not have split precincts,” Braxton added. “They can, and do, cause confusion.”

It was because of voting irregularities — wrong ballots being issued and eligible voters not being able to vote in the GOP primary — that led to a second 10th District GOP primary in September. Rep. Stephen LaRoque, R-Lenoir, appealed his loss to Starling in the primary, and after hearing sin both Raleigh and Kinston the State Board of Elections determined enough voting irregularities occurred to warrant a second election.

During the second primary in September, returns were delayed from one precinct because of a voting machine that did not function properly.

All election results are unofficial until canvassing is held at 11 a.m. today.