As early voting got underway in October, incidents at Cumberland County early voting sites stirred up voters, the county Republican Party, and county Board of Elections members — raising questions about which kind of activities are allowed outside the polls.
Meanwhile, voting is entering its final days before Nov. 5 Election Day, with data showing participation in early voting and absentee ballot voting has trended down compared to this point in the 2020 election.
As of Wednesday morning, according to the North Carolina Board of Elections, about 3.37 million people had voted statewide. That is 39.8% of nearly 7.8 million registered voters. By this point in the 2020 election, 3.66 million had voted. In Cumberland County, 76,599 have voted as of Wednesday morning, vs. 96,100 in 2020.
Electioneering complaints
In recent weeks, members of the Cumberland County Board of Elections have fielded complaints about conduct among electioneers and voters, Board of Elections Chair Irene Grimes said. Among them:
- At the Cliffdale Recreation Center early voting site in west Fayetteville, a man went to the people standing in line outside the building to ask them for their names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses for billionaire Elon Musk’s America Political Action Committee. The man was hoping to get paid $47 for each registered voter’s information that he collected. Musk supports Republican Donald Trump for president.
- Also at the Cliffdale site, Republicans accused state Sen. Val Applewhite of giving free food to voters in an attempt to influence them to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and other Democrats. They also said she broke one of the site’s electioneer rules by crossing outside a rope line that runs between electioneers and the voters waiting in line.
These complaints were discussed at the Oct. 22 meeting of the Cumberland County Board of Elections.
Candidates and their volunteers and paid staff are allowed to electioneer — to interact with voters outside the polling sites to try to persuade them to their side — Grimes said. But she and other election officials said they must obey the law and local rules.
For example, the law prohibits electioneering within 50 feet of the entrance to a polling place. Signs mark the 50-foot boundary. They must also not impede the voters as they are going to the polling place.
Space outside the Cliffdale Recreation Center polling site is limited, with voters lined up on a sidewalk outside the building. Because of the limited space, electioneers at Cliffdale are supposed to stay on a lawn right next to the sidewalk, Grimes said. A rope strung along the length of the sidewalk marks the boundary for them to stand behind.
Elon Musk collects voters’ contact info
In Fayetteville, a man found a way to reach a large group of registered voters gathered in one place and collect their information in a short period of time so he can collect $47 from Musk for each one. In the first few days of early voting, the man went to the Cliffdale Recreation Center to solicit those in line to vote — some standing on the sidewalk, others waiting in their cars for curbside voting.
He carried a placard that describes an online petition Musk has promoted for people to sign to show their support for the rights to free speech and to bear arms.
The Cliffdale site is the most popular of Cumberland County’s eight early voting sites, according to data from the county Board of Elections. As of Tuesday evening, 15,402 people had voted there.
Musk, the richest person in the world and CEO of Tesla, has a political action committee called America PAC. Both are backing Trump, with Musk having committed over $100 million to the PAC ahead of the 2024 election. Through the PAC, Musk is collecting the names, email addresses, cell phone numbers and street addresses of registered voters who pledge their support for the 1st and 2nd Amendments.
To further entice people to submit their information, Musk’s PAC is offering a daily $1 million prize to those who fill out the form. As of early Wednesday afternoon, 11 people had won $1 million, including a man from North Carolina, the PAC said.
Musk’s petition program is operating in seven swing states that could decide the outcome of the presidential election: North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Is it legal?
The North Carolina State Board of Elections did not respond to queries from CityView last week and this week on whether the man’s activity violated any state election laws or regulations.
Legal experts told NBC News they are unsure whether Musk’s petition drive with its $47 per voter bounty and its daily $1 million lottery violates election laws. “I think it straddles the line, and it’s a little unclear whether it goes over the line or not,” one said.
Meanwhile, the district attorney in Philadelphia has sued Musk and his PAC on the allegation that the $1 million prize is an illegal lottery in Pennsylvania.
The man collecting voter information in Fayetteville was reluctant to answer questions from CityView outside of the Cliffdale site on Oct. 20, at first saying his name was Jack Sparrow (from the Pirates of the Caribbean films). Later he said his middle name is Ojan.
Some people interviewed at the Cliffdale site on Friday said they thought Ojan had told them they will receive $47 for filing out Musk’s petition form.
In a video taken of Ojan and shared with CityView, he solicited voters on Oct. 18, telling one, “If you sign this, I get $47 for referral. And everybody that signs it for you and puts your phone number, you’ll get $47.”
America PAC said on Tuesday that it had issued 87,000 checks to people who made referrals, and another 100,000 checks were scheduled to be sent on Wednesday.
Ojan refused to tell CityView how much money he made.
“I take the Fifth the whole way down,” he said.
He said he drove to North Carolina from Arizona for the Musk petition drive. “But not just for this. My mom lives in Maryland, so I’m visiting her as well,” he said.
On Monday, Elections Board Chair Grimes and Board Member Linda Devore told CityView that they have not heard further reports of Ojan or others collecting voter information at the early voting sites.
Food for votes? And crossing the line?
In another recent incident, Cumberland County Republican Chair Nina Morton expressed concern that Democrats at the Cliffdale voting site on Oct. 20 were giving food to voters to try to entice their votes. She also alleged that Democratic Sen. Val Applewhite had broken the Cliffdale site’s electioneering rules by not staying behind the rope line when she talked to voters.
It’s illegal to give someone something of value in exchange for their vote.
CityView observed a food tent on Oct. 20, and some people there wore T-shirts for Applewhite, who is seeking reelection.
What does Applewhite say?
Simon Temple AME Zion Church operated the food tent as part of a “Souls to the Polls” effort, in which voters go to early voting sites to cast their ballots after attending Sunday services, Applewhite told CityView.
“I went to service at Simon Temple that morning, and Swan Davis, who works with me, he set up the food. I bought cake, and the little doughnut, cupcake things there.”
The cake was to celebrate Kamala Harris’ birthday that day, she said.
“You didn’t have to be a Democrat” to get a meal, Applewhite said. “We didn’t care who it was.”
Still, Grimes, who is a Democrat and was appointed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, said she believes people giving out food at the polling site should not have worn Applewhite shirts.
“I’m not an attorney, and I don’t know if it violates the letter of the law. But the spirit of the law is that the people that are handing out the food shouldn’t — shouldn’t be seen, shouldn’t be perceived to endorse a particular candidate, right?” Grimes said.
“So you’re handing me food, and you’re wearing somebody’s T-shirt? That’s an implicit endorsement, to me,” she said. “I would have asked them to wear them inside-out, or changed their shirts, or whatever.”
Applewhite defended the use of the T-shirts by the people giving away the food. “They’ve always worn my campaign shirts,” she said. “I’m not going to change that. I’m absolutely not going to change that.”
She said she doesn’t see any harm and “no one’s ever told me that I can’t do it.”
What about when Applewhite crossed the electioneering line?
Applewhite told CityView she walked down the voter line sidewalk for two reasons.
First, she has a disability with her hips, she said, including a hip replacement. When she walked between the food tent and the electioneering area behind the rope, she said, she walked along the sidewalk to the end of the rope to go around it instead of attempting to duck under or step over it.
Second, Applewhite said, she walked along the sidewalk with a box of water from the food tent to hand out bottles of water to the voters.
“It was so hot, I said, ‘Give me some water so I can give to people,’” she said. “And my exact words as I walked through the line was, ‘Get your water! Get your ice cold water!’ Get your water!’”
Anyone who wanted water could get some, Applewhite said. She was still in her clothing from church, not any campaign gear, she said, and she didn’t consider giving out water to be electioneering.
A woman approached and told Applewhite she isn’t allowed to talk to voters while on the sidewalk, Applewhite said. She said she doesn’t know whether the woman was a staff person with the Board of Elections.
“I said, ‘I know that,’’’ Applewhite said. “She said, ‘OK, I just want to make sure you know.’ I like, ‘I do know that.’”
Click here to see the CityView election guide, with further information about voting and the candidates.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.Did you find this story useful or interesting? It was made possible by donations from readers like you to the CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation so CityView can bring you more news and information like this.
