There is concern circulating that people who don't live on Wrightsville Beach are voting on Wrightsville Beach.
That's the issue currently being debated between three Wrightsville Beach candidates and the New Hanover County Board of Elections office.
David Cignotti, Bill Sisson and Walter De Vries, sent mailings to more than 1,600 households in Wrightsville Beach. Three hundred of those mailings from each candidate—or more than 900 total—did not reach their intended addresses, either because the person moved, had no forwarding address, the address was insufficient or the residence was vacant, according to a letter sent to the board of elections office by Mr. De Vries. Some of the households have out-of-state forwarding addresses in places like Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont and Wisconsin, but a majority of them were in Wilmington.
Each one of those mailings costs about $1.
Questions have been raised about voter intent and how residency plays into voter eligibility. More importantly, the candidates wonder if registration regulations are too loose and what can be done to alleviate the financial burden of inaccurate rolls?
The issue is nothing new, elections officials say, and concerns like this tend to surface during elections in coastal communities where people often own second homes and where races can be determined by a single vote.
The North Carolina Board of Elections Executive Director, Gary Bartlett, was cited in an article by WHQR-FM in September as saying that intricate state residency laws often lend to the assumption that multiple homeowners can vote wherever they want.
"If you don't get your mail at the address where you're registered, then you don't live at that address," Sisson said.
“It’s something they need to look at and see if they can’t improve upon,” Cignotti said. “I don’t think any of it is necessarily intentional, but I think the current role is not very accurate.”
Information provided to candidates is compiled from information provided by the voters, said Bonnie Williams, director of the New Hanover County Board of Elections.
Absentee voting records, registration information and one-stop records are updated daily and open to the public, she said.
Much of the returned mail is likely due to the fact that voters move and never update their registration information, officials say, but fear still lingers over the possibility of voter fraud.
People can be indicted on felony charges if they lie on their voter registration information, but some contend that enforcement is lacking.
The county uses several verification techniques, is implementing statewide address verification practices, and has formed partnerships with agencies like the DMV to keep rolls accurate, Williams said.
The board also conducts list maintenance every two years, weeding out those who have moved and never updated, Williams said.
The board of elections is never authorized to alter or remove someone from the rolls unless it’s by the request of the voter or proper procedures have been met, Williams said.
She said candidates can file challenges to any voter whom they suspect is committing voter fraud or has failed to update information.
Sisson's wife, Joy Miller, has filed such a challenge against David Patterson,Jr., based on evidence that suggests the voter may have moved out of Wrightsville Beach, said the director. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Oct. 27.
The issue of voter registration regulations was an issue in the 2005 mayoral election when Sisson campaigned against Bob O'Quinn.
Oscar Grant, then an alderman candidate, filed a challenge against 24 voters because mailings he distributed were returned by the U.S. Postal Service as undeliverable, records indicate. The board of elections held a public hearing, during which it decided that those 24 people would not be allowed to vote in the election.
"I am very concerned about people who register down here, don't live here and vote here," Lumina News reported Grant as saying before the hearing.
