The top Rockingham County elections official alleged Friday that a woman associated with a progressive advocacy group attempted to interfere with provisional voters who were coming back to an elections office to fix issues with their ballots \u2014 votes that could upend power in the North Carolina Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don Powell, the chairman of the Rockingham Board of Elections, said the woman was approaching voters Thursday as they entered and exited the board\u2019s office in Reidsville, asking voters who they voted for while recording videos of the interactions. Powell says he told the woman that she wasn\u2019t allowed to approach voters or record them at the office. He said she returned again to the office on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Powell, who reported the incident to state elections officials, said such interactions could deter voters from meeting with elections officials. \u201cThat prevents people from coming in, having open conversations with our people without us having to take them to a private room to ask questions and feel comfortable with the answers \u2014 because she was sitting right there,\u201d Powell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Powell said the woman identified herself only as \u201cChris\u201d and said she handed him a pamphlet from Blueprint NC Faith Table. The pamphlet says the group is \u201cbuilding a nimble, responsive, adaptive and scalable network ready to counter the impact of MAGA and white Christian nationalism.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Serena Sebring, the executive director of Blueprint NC Faith Table, told WRAL that the person at the center of the allegation was acting independently and not on the group\u2019s behalf. Sebring didn\u2019t identify the person. \u201cBlueprint NC is committed to protecting every eligible voter’s right to cast a ballot and have that ballot count,\u201d Sebring said in a statement.<\/p>\n
State law prohibits people from harassing voters within a prescribed buffer area of a polling place. They\u2019re also prohibited from interfering with elections officials\u2019 efforts to count and collect ballots. State elections officials have cited those rules in guidance ahead of in-person voting on Election Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After early votes and Election Day ballots were tallied Tuesday, Rockingham Sheriff Sam Page led State Sen. Berger by just two votes<\/a> in the Republican primary for the state\u2019s 26th Senate District. Page’s lead grew to 23 votes Friday after Rockingham and Guilford\u00a0county elections officials finished counting provisional ballots.<\/p>\n Ballots from military and overseas voters are expected to be counted next week. If the margin of victory is less than one percentage point apart after those are counted, the trailing candidate can request a recount by March 17. A recount is expected, however, because there are fewer than six\u00a0 military and overseas ballots expected, elections officials said Friday.<\/p>\n Powell\u2019s allegations come as officials are undertaking what\u2019s known as the \u201ccure\u201d process in voting parlance, in which elections officials investigate issues with certain ballots.\u00a0<\/p>\n When voters run into problems at the polls \u2014 such as if they show up at the wrong precinct, forget an acceptable form of photo identification, or weren’t on the list of registered voters even though they thought they should be \u2014 they’re still allowed to vote. Those voters have to cast what’s called a provisional ballot. The provisional ballot might or might not be counted, depending on the cure process. During that process, voters can provide any documents they have to try to get their vote counted.\u00a0That process was finalized\u00a0in counties statewide on Friday, including in Rockingham County.\u00a0<\/p>\n Berger, one of the state\u2019s most influential Republican legislators, has led the Senate for more than a decade. Page ran for the office, saying Berger had lost touch with the people of their district. Democratic groups, too, have sought to support the effort to unseat Berger.\u00a0<\/p>\n Because of the stakes of the race, scrutiny on the electoral process has been elevated, along with calls for independent oversight of a possible recount.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement to WRAL, the Berger campaign said its volunteers have contacted voters who submitted provisional ballots and encouraged them to resolve their issues. However, Berger campaign spokesman Jonathan Felts said the campaign’s volunteers don\u2019t ask voters who they attempted to vote for. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Berger campaign has not engaged and will not engage in any of the voter intimidation activities that have been alleged or are being conducted,\u201d Felts said. He added the campaign feels confident that the person at the center of Powell’s intimidation allegation \u201cis not there in support of Senator Berger\u2019s reelection.\u201d<\/p>\n The allegations come a day after Bob Rucho, a Republican member of the State Board of Elections and Berger ally, resigned from the board<\/a>. Rucho had made public statements in support of Berger and against Page ahead of the primary, even though board members are expected to refrain from partisan statements.\u00a0<\/p>\n