The N.C. State Board of Elections on Wednesday rejected a request from Godwin town board candidate Dennis Smith Sr. to throw out the results of the town’s November election and hold a new one. The vote was 4-1.
Smith told CityView he intends to appeal the decision and continue to seek a new election. If he follows through, he would do this at Wake County Superior Court, a state elections spokesperson said.
In Wednesday’s vote, the elections board also referred evidence of potentially illegal activities on the part of Godwin’s former town clerk during the election to district attorneys in Cumberland and Wake counties.
Board member Stacy Eggers IV said there were “irregularities related to improper campaigning in violation of the law” on the part of the former clerk, Jacqueline Cooper-Kelley. However, Eggers said, the information before the board was not enough to show that Cooper-Kelley’s actions affected enough voters to change the outcome, so there is no call for a new election.
Town employees are allowed to campaign for town board members on their personal time. But it’s illegal for them to do so while they are on the job or from their workplaces.
The state board was told there was evidence that Cooper-Kelley contacted at least six people to ask them to reelect all four of the incumbents on the town board.
At a hearing in December, Cooper-Kelley testified she sent a text message from Town Hall during her work hours to two people, asking voters to reelect the board’s four incumbents. At a hearing February 6, she testified she texted one person from Town Hall while at work, and five from her home outside work hours.
Godwin Mayor Willie Burnette previously told CityView that Cooper-Kelley was fired in January for poor job performance.
In the 4-1 vote on Wednesday, state elections board members Eggers, Francis De Luca, Bob Rucho, and Siobhan O’Duffy Millen voted to reject Smith’s protest. Board member Jeff Carmon opposed them.
“Being from a small town, I know the impact of receiving a phone call from someone in a position such as hers, telling you who to go vote for,” Carmon said.
While the board knows about six people Cooper-Kelley contacted, he said, “what we don’t know is how many other folks she made those calls to, and how it impacted the election.”
Smith Has Challenged Results Since November
Since November, Smith has protested the election results on the assertion that the town clerk illegally contacted voters. In December, the Cumberland County Board of Elections rejected Smith’s protest. But then at another hearing on February 6, the county board concluded the clerk might have illegally influenced enough voters to affect the outcome, and it recommended that the state board order a new election.
Godwin’s town board has “pick four” elections, where voters select their four choices from a list of all the candidates. Smith came in fifth place out of the five candidates in November. He had 20 votes, and was five votes behind the fourth-place finisher, Town Commissioner George Cooper Jr.
Godwin is a town of about 160 people northeast of Fayetteville in Cumberland County. It has about 120 registered voters, and 45 participated in the November election, according to the state and county election offices.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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