Allegations of election bribery have engulfed a local Democrat primary in Robeson County, North Carolina.
In a complaint filed Thursday in Wake County Superior Court, Democrat Lacy Cummings accused Democrat Commissioners Wixie Stephens and Judy Sampson of paying local residents to vote for Sampson during the state’s March 5 primary elections. Nine signed affidavits attached to the complaint allege that Stephens engaged in illegal behaviors ranging from paying people to vote for Sampson to using her bail bond company to bribe voters with promises of bail help.
Results from that election and a March 27 recount indicate Sampson — the incumbent — defeated Cummings by five votes, 875 to 870, in the Democrat primary for the commissioners’ District 5 seat.
Cummings filed an “Initial Protest” form on March 15 alleging “two incidents involving voters in his district being directed to vote more than once and out of district by a sitting County Commissioner [Stephens] believed to be working for Sampson’s campaign, who also incidentally also drove these voters to the two different polls to cast two different ballots.” Cummings said he requested the Robeson County Board of Elections hear his allegations during its provisional canvassing meeting, but that the board declined to hear the claims and subsequently dismissed the protest form on March 27.
This prompted Cummings to file an appeal with the North Carolina State Board of Elections on April 1. The state board’s Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell administratively denied Cummings’ appeal on April
