Allen Dial was sworn in as the mayor of Pembroke on Monday, 874 days after voters elected him.
Legal battles kept Dial out of office after the Nov. 7, 2023, election in which he defeated incumbent mayor Gregory Cummings by 19 votes. Cummings challenged the results, taking his case all the way to the N.C. Court of Appeals, which ruled against him in early March.
“The citizens voted, and they were deprived of what they voted for,” Dial told the Border Belt Independent on Monday. “I just want to move forward.”
Cummings, who served as mayor since 2015, claimed that some voters in the election were ineligible to cast ballots–including some unhoused people who stayed in a tent community on Dial’s property in the Robeson County town.
The Robeson County Board of Elections and the N.C. State Board of Elections ruled against Cummings in 2024. When a trial judge ruled against him last year, Cummings appealed to the higher court, where a three-judge panel said he did not have sufficient evidence to show irregularities in the election.
Cummings asked the Supreme Court on March 24 to suspend the ruling by the appeals court. But the justices apparently did not consider the request, and the election results were certified on Monday, according to Dial.
Cummings, who is registered as an unaffiliated voter, remained mayor through the legal proceedings; now Dial will serve the remainder of the term, which ends in 2027.
Dial, a Democrat, said he was sworn in during a private ceremony with family members at Pembroke Town Hall. The transfer of power marks the end of a convoluted election process that highlighted political tensions in Pembroke, home to about 2,800 people and the headquarters of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.
Cummings and Dial both served more than 12 years on the Pembroke Town Council, where they often disagreed. They competed in every mayoral election in the town since 2015. That year, Dial was ahead by 11 votes, but the state ordered an election redo after Cummings raised concerns about irregularities and fraud. Cummings then won by six votes, and election officials dismissed a protest by Dial.
This time around, Cummings’ protest raised larger questions about the eligibility of voters who are homeless. In court filings, he alleged that 16 ineligible voters, including some who stayed on Dial’s property, cast ballots in the 2023 election. Cummings claimed that Dial helped the people register to vote and that Dial’s daughter notarized 19 affidavits from voters who said they had been staying on the property for more than 30 days and were eligible to vote.
In a concurring opinion, N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Donna Stroud wrote that she worried “this case may end up being a user’s guide on how to enlist people in non-traditional housing as voters to help you win your election.”
Cummings’ allegations against Dial raised “at least an appearance of serious questions about the election’s fairness,” wrote Stroud, adding that election laws should try to prevent candidates from taking advantage of voters in “unfortunate circumstances.”
Cummings said he would issue a press release by the end of the week.