Pembroke Mayor Gregory Cummings wants the state Supreme Court to suspend a lower court’s ruling that said he did not have enough evidence to show irregularities in the 2023 election.
Cummings filed the order with the state’s highest court on Tuesday..
Cummings, who has served as mayor of the Robeson County town since 2015, sued the North Carolina Board of Elections and his opponent, Allen Dial, after the municipal election in 2023. Results showed that Dial won by 19 votes, but Cummings alleged that some unhoused people who cast ballots were ineligible to vote.
The state elections board ruled against Cummings in September 2024, as did a trial judge last year. Cummings appealed again, and the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled against him earlier this month.
Cummings has remained in office while the case winds through the courts. His appeal to the Supreme Court says Dial could be sworn into office any day now unless the justices issue a stay; Dial would serve out the remainder of the term, which ends in 2027.
Dial told the Border Belt Independent that the courts have spoken and he deserves to be mayor.
“I won the case in 2023, and he’s just been appealing, appealing, appealing every time,” Dial said. “I’ve been to court four times and I’ve won all those four times, so you would think there would be a transition.”
Cummings did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Cummings and Dial have been competing for the mayoral seat for more than a decade. The state ordered an election redo in 2016 after Cummings raised concerns about voter irregularities and fraud. Dial then questioned the redo results, but election officials dismissed his protest.
In court filings, Cummings alleged that 16 ineligible voters, some of whom were unhoused and staying on Dial’s property, cast ballots in the 2023 election. He also alleged that Dial helped the people register to vote and that Dial’s daughters notarized 19 affidavits from voters who said they had been staying on the property for more than 30 days.
The ruling from a three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals said Cummings “failed to show that more than one contested voter did not reside in the Town of Pembroke; thus, there were no irregularities so extensive that they tainted the results of the entire election and cast doubt on its fairness.”
Pembroke Town Manager Tyler Thomas said he has not received any updates or guidance from the state since the appeals court published its ruling.
“We don’t have many answers ourselves,” Thomas said in an email to the Border Belt Independent.