LUMBERTON — The chairman of the Robeson County Democratic Party is defending the process that resulted with the wife of the late Berlester Campbell taking his seat on the county Board of Commissioners.
Edward Henderson, who is also the mayor of Red Springs, said the precincts that participated in the executive committee meeting on Nov. 15 were organized on time and the meeting was conducted according to the guidelines contained in the state party’s Plan of Organization. And those rules were explained to all meeting participants.
That night Pauline Campbell was elected as the person to be sworn in to the seat on Dec. 3 in a 26.5 to 23.5 vote over Hubert Sealey, who previously served three terms on the county board. Sealey had told The Robesonian previously that his understanding was that only three precincts, Rowland, Fairmont, and Maxton, would participate. The Robesonian tried repeatedly to confirm that with a state Democratic Party official but could never reach the person.
“The information we had came from the state party,” Henderson said.
The process has been challenged by Terry Evans, a Fairmont Board of Commissioners member and chairman of the Fairmont precinct in District 2. He participated in the executive committee meeting and voted for Sealey. Sealey, when asked soon after the vote if he would appeal, said he had not decided.
Evans has said absent committee members had proxies vote for them in violation of state Democratic Party rules. Evans also has said three of the six participating precincts — there are 12 in District 2 — were not organized in time and should not have been allowed to take part in the meeting. The precincts that should not have been allowed to participate were Back Swamp, Gaddy’s and Orrum, he said.
Only the Fairmont, Maxton and Rowland precincts were organized and the appropriate documentation received by the state party before the Nov. 1 deadline set by state party rules, Evans said. Those precincts’ votes alone would have ended with the selection of Sealey.
Henderson said he and Gary Locklear, interim county attorney, tried to ensure the meeting and the voting were conducted in the most fair and proper manner possible. Even the vote counting was done at a table in full view of the meeting participants.
“As I’ve said before, my goal was to hold the executive committee meeting in time to make sure the nominee was selected and certified in time to be sworn in on Dec. 3,” he said.
The final certification of the winners from the Nov. 6 general election is being delayed by the need to determine the victor in a local District Court judicial race.
The signing of a certification document for each midterm election winner must wait until after the recount of votes from the District Court race between Jack Moody and Vanessa Burton, said Steve Stone, chairman of the Robeson County Board of Elections. The recount is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. Monday and is expected to continue until well into the evening.
Once the recount is completed, Stone will certify the results. The documents then will be sent to the appropriate governing bodies in time for swearing-in ceremonies.
Moody, a Republican, asked for the recount after provisional ballots from the judicial race were counted by the Elections Board on Tuesday. Moody, an attorney with the Robeson County Public Defender’s Office, had a 77-vote lead over Burton, a Democrat and assistant prosecutor in the District Attorney’s Office, going in to the recount. When the provisional ballots were counted the official tally was 15,384 for Burton and 15,313 for Moody. Moody was able to ask for a recount because Burton’s lead was less than 1 percent of the total votes cast.
