Duron Burney, who lost the Red Springs mayoral race by two votes in November, is challenging 18 absentee ballots cast by residents in a local assisted-living facility.
The Robeson County Board of Elections sent the election protest to the state board, which could decide whether the votes are valid.
Caroline Sumpter won 360 votes for mayor in the November 4 election, and Burney won 358, according to the N.C. State Board of Elections. Both served on the town’s board of commissioners before they ran for mayor.
In a protest filed with the Robeson County Board of Elections, Burney alleged that employees of Red Springs Assisted Living illegally helped residents request and cast absentee ballots.
Crystal Graham, an attorney representing Burney during a November 21 hearing before the county board, said the employees failed to fill out Section 7 of the ballot request form, which asks whether the person filling out the paperwork is doing so on behalf of a “near relative, legal guardian, or person the voter asks to help due to disability.” The form says any person requesting the ballot on behalf of another “must complete and sign this section.”
“How does that affect the voter?” Graham said to the board. “Well, it spoils the absentee ballot because they should have never gotten it in the first place.”
But Corye Dunn, director of public policy for Disability Rights North Carolina, told the Border Belt Independent that the residents’ votes should be counted.
The nonprofit filed a lawsuit against the state Board of Elections in 2022 in U.S. District Court in eastern North Carolina, alleging that the board violated the federal Voting Rights Act by limiting who can provide voting assistance to those with disabilities.
Under the Voting Rights Act, anyone except a voter’s employer or union representative can help them vote, the court said. The decision forced the state to broaden the list of who can help a voter with a disability to include people like employees of assisted-living facilities.
However, sections of North Carolina’s general statute don’t reflect this language. Despite being updated in 2023 following the court case, the law still states that it’s a felony for anyone except the “voter’s near relative or the voter’s verifiable legal guardian to assist the voter to vote an absentee ballot.”
Dunn said the court’s ruling and federal voting rights law should supersede the state statute. While the facility employees didn’t fill out the disability section of the absentee ballot application on behalf of the residents, the county elections board deemed the requests adequate and sent the ballots.
“It’s what we would call a harmless error,” Dunn said. “If the error doesn’t actually change the outcome of a case—in this case, the eligibility of a voter—then it shouldn’t be used as a technical bar.”
Gretchen Lutz, chair of the county elections board, said members were in a “quandary.”
“Federal laws say that anybody can help, but our form doesn’t reflect that since it wasn’t filled out properly,” she said during the hearing. “So while they may legally be able to help, they still did not fill out the form saying, ‘Hey, we’re doing this.’”
Burney told the Border Belt Independent he was happy the local board sent the case to the state.
“Everybody will be pleased with the outcome,” he said. “At the end of the day, we want everybody to feel comfortable with the state law and federal law.”
Sumpter said she was disappointed by the decision.
“To those who are supporting this campaign and who are opposing this campaign, right will prevail,” Sumpter told the Border Belt Independent. “I want to be mayor. Let’s not question that. But not on the pretense of cutting someone else’s rights from up under them, or casting doubt on our electoral system.”
Burney said he challenged the votes after he learned that about 20 absentee ballots came from the same address—1301 E. Fourth Avenue, home to Red Springs Assisted Living.
He protested 19 of the ballots, but one was deemed invalid because it had incomplete witness information. Twelve of the ballots were from people who have consistently voted absentee by mail in previous elections.
Burney’s protest specifically highlights seven voters who were deemed incompetent and placed under guardianship by state courts or county social services departments.
Graham called a witness, the sister-in-law of a resident at the assisted-living facility, who testified during the hearing that residents weren’t mentally capable of voting or agreeing to receive help in voting. However, the board said much of the testimony was invalid because it was second-hand evidence.
People deemed incompetent and placed under guardianship still have the right to vote, according to state law, so long as they’re otherwise eligible. Mental capacity is not a limiting factor.
“Guardianship has nothing to do with capacity to vote,” Dunn said. “There is no test for capacity to vote. It would be a poll test, and it’s very clear in federal law that poll tests are impermissible.”
Technicalities and loopholes in voting laws worry Dunn and Common Cause North Carolina, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to protecting voting rights. A volunteer with Common Cause North Carolina attended the hearing.
“Just because it happens in Red Springs, a small municipality, doesn’t mean it’s not important,” said Brooks Fuller, policy director for the organization. “It is a microcosm of some of the things that we’re likely to see in 2026, 2027, and 2028. It really underscores the importance of voting laws and voting rights laws that make it so that every legal ballot can be cast.”
Fuller said the Red Springs protest is an example of how restrictive election laws can create an environment where it’s easier to challenge legal votes than it is to defend them. He worries that proposed legislation in the N.C. General Assembly, like House Bill 958, could allow for more challenges. If passed, the bill would make several changes to election law, including setting deadlines for when counties must count all absentee and provisional ballots.
Dunn said she is concerned that more people will question the votes of people with disabilities in future elections if the state board doesn’t dismiss Burney’s protest.
“If your best argument for why you should be in office is that you believe that someone filled out a form wrong, and therefore you should be able to disenfranchise your constituents, that’s troubling,” she said. “It would be a really troubling precedent for people with disabilities statewide, if that’s all you have to do to throw out ballots.”
Fuller said the General Assembly could rewrite election laws to clear up technicalities. He said state lawmakers could also increase resources for local election boards’ multipartisan assistance teams (MAT) to ensure that forms are filled out properly. The teams help voters in hospitals, clinics, and assisted-living facilities register to vote and cast their ballots.
Sumpter said her campaign manager, Wixie Stephens, asked the county elections board as early as October 22 to send a team to Red Springs Assisted Living to help residents get identification cards and fill out absentee ballot request forms. However, she said the board was ultimately unable to do so because it does not have the technology to produce IDs off-site.
“If the General Assembly wants to undertake true pro-voter reform,” Fuller said, “this is just one of the ways that they can help do that.”