LUMBERTON — A Fairmont commissioner questions the validity of the election Thursday that gave Berlester Campbell’s widow his District 2 seat on the Robeson County Board of Commissioners.
“That whole thing last night was a disaster from the beginning,” Terry Evans said Friday.
A Robeson County Democratic Party County Executive Committee met Thursday in Fairmont to select the person who would receive Campbell’s votes from the Nov. 6 general election and serve his four-year term, which begins in December. Campbell won re-election to the seat by winning the May 8 Democratic primary andwas unopposed in the general election. He died Sept. 28, so Thursday’s meeting was to decide who would receive the votes cast for him on Nov. 6.
Pauline Campbell won her husband’s seat by a vote of 26.5 to 23.5 over Hubert Sealey, who served three terms on the Board of Commissioners before losing it to Berlester Campbell in 2014.
Votes during a party Executive Committee meeting are weighted. Authorized to vote were each precinct’s chairperson and vice chairperson, and any Democrat elected to public office who lives inside District 2. The Fairmont precinct had 11 votes; Maxton, 10; Rowland, five; Gaddy’s, two; Orrum, two; and Back Swamp had two. Vanessa Abernathy, a member of the state Democratic Party executive committee, also voted. Elected officials from the municipalities and the school board were allowed one vote, while precinct chairmen and vice chairmen split votes that were allocated based on the number of votes cast for Gov. Roy Cooper in the 2016 election.
Evans, who supported Sealey, says the vote results should not stand.
Only the Fairmont, Maxton and Rowland precincts in District 2 were organized by the Nov. 1 deadline, Evans said. He said the paperwork for the Back Swamp, Gaddy’s and Orrum precincts had not been received by the state Democratic Party by the deadline, which meant they officially were not organized and therefore the precincts’ representatives should not have been allowed to vote.
State party rules mandate that a precinct must be organized at least two weeks before an executive committee meets in order for its representatives to be voting participants.
Certain precinct officials were not present for Thursday’s meeting and appointed proxies to vote for them, Evans said.
The Precinct Meetings, County, District, or State Conventions paragraph of Section 11.05 of The North Carolina Democratic Party Plan of Organization As Amended Aug. 19, 2017, reads, “Proxy voting shall not be permitted at precinct meetings, county, district, or state conventions.”
“I think it was rigged from the get-go by the Robeson County Democratic Party,” Evans said. “The leadership of the Robeson County Democratic Party don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”
Sealey said Friday that he is not planning to protest the results “at this time.”
“It is what it is,” he said. “You win some. You lose some.”
The voting by proxy rule did not apply to Thursday’s Executive Committee meeting because the meeting was specifically to select Berlester Campbell’s replacement, said Gary Locklear, interim Robeson County attorney. It was not a regular precinct, district or county meeting.
“I stand on what I’ve said and what I’ve done,” said Locklear, who helped officiate Thursday’s meeting. “If I’m wrong I’ll admit it.”
Locklear forwarded to The Robesonian an email from the state Democratic Party to Ed Henderson, county Democratic Party chairman and Red Springs mayor. The email indicates all six precincts participating in Thursday’s County Executive Committee meeting were organized in time.
The email also seems to indicate that voting by proxy was permissible.
It reads in part, “Per 11.05 Proxy Voting and the paragraph titled County Executive Committee, it sounds like the precinct chair and vice chair can give their proxies to Democrats in their precinct who reside in the district. BUT once they give their proxy to these people, they can’t vote on any matter at that meeting as they no longer have a vote at the CEC meeting.”
Evans did not specify who voted by proxy.
Chapter 11.05 of the state party’s Plan of Organization is titled “Proxy Voting.”
The County Executive Committee paragraph reads, “A member of a county executive committee may designate an active Democrat from his or her precinct, and when the member is president of a duly organized and chartered county chapter of a state auxiliary organization, he or she may designate a member of his or her auxiliary organization, to serve as his or her alternate for a particular county executive committee meeting by notifying the county executive committee chair or secretary of such designation in writing, prior to the call to order of such meeting; provided, however, that no person may serve as an alternate for more than one member at any meeting and no member can also serve at the same meeting as an alternate.”
Multiple telephone calls made during this past week to the state Democratic Party seeking explanations and information were not returned. The Robesonian also sent to the state party an email seeking information and clarification. A response to the email had yet to be received as of The Robesonian’s Friday deadline.
