Overview:
• Smith was five votes short of winning a seat on the town board.
• The county Board of Elections previously rejected Smith’s protest of the election results. Smith appealed.
• The state Board of Elections granted him a new hearing with the county board.
• If Smith wins his claim, a new election would be held.
A hearing is scheduled for January 16 in an ongoing dispute that could lead to the cancellation of the November election results for the Godwin town commissioners.
If the November election results are canceled, Godwin will hold a new election to pick its four town board members, Cumberland County Board of Elections Chair Linda Devore told CityView.
During the hearing, the elections board will receive new evidence as to whether voters were illegally influenced by Godwin Town Clerk Jacqueline K. Cooper-Kelley. It will also consider again whether this influence tainted the election results, Devore said.
The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. in the county commissioners chamber of the Cumberland County Courthouse. The public can attend in person or watch a livestream, according to Vicki Hilburn, the county elections deputy director. The county livestreams its meetings on YouTube, on its website, and via an app on smart televisions.
Godwin, which has an estimated 160 residents, is about a 15 to 20 minute drive from Ramsey Street in northeast Fayetteville. It’s just off Interstate 95 in northeastern Cumberland County.
In Godwin, the 45 people who voted in the November 4 election were presented with a list of five commissioner candidates and asked to pick four of them. Candidate Dennis Smith Sr. received 20 votes, which was five votes short of landing in the top four.
He contends Cooper-Kelley influenced the outcome of the election by texting voters on Election Day, telling them to vote for the four incumbents.
The county elections board held a hearing on the matter on December 2. Cooper-Kelly testified she texted two people during her work hours and while she was in the Godwin Town Hall.
State law allows town employees to express their opinions in elections, but prohibits them from doing so while in their workplaces or while on duty.
The board concluded that if the clerk influenced any voters, too few were affected to have changed the election results. It dismissed Smith’s complaint.
Smith appealed the county’s decision to the state Board of Elections. On December 22, the state board voted to grant him a new hearing before the county board so he can present evidence that he said he did not have for the December 2 hearing.
“He had two things he told the state board,” Devore said.
“One was that he thought maybe some witnesses had been intimidated from coming forward before,” she said. “In addition to that, he told the state board that he had found more witnesses. And so they are allowing him to present that additional evidence to us.”
If the county board sides with Smith, it will forward to the state board a recommendation to hold a new election, Devore said. The state board would decide whether to hold the new election and set the date, she said.
It would probably be held in the spring, she said, though not on March 3 when North Carolina is holding a statewide primary. Ballots have already been printed for the primary and other logistics are already well underway, she said.
Smith is the father of Dennis Smith Jr., who is known in the Fayetteville area for his professional basketball career and community service activities.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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