The N.C. Board of Elections overruled local officials in deciding Republican Bobby Knight was eligible to run for Wilson County Sheriff. Knight briefly changed his party affiliation to Democrat before reversing it. (Photo: Knight Facebook page)
The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 3-2 Tuesday to overrule the Wilson County Board of Elections in favor of a Republican candidate seeking to run for sheriff.
Bobby Knight, a senior deputy in the Nash County Sheriff’s Office, maintained he has been a registered Republican since 2012. But in December, when he says he tried to update his address through the state Division of Motor Vehicles website, he claims he accidentally changed his party affiliation.
State law prohibits a person from filing as a candidate in a party primary unless that person has been affiliated with that party for at least 90 days.
Wilson County sheriff candidates Brandon Barbrey, a Democrat, and Kevin Raper, a Republican, each filed candidate challenges arguing that the change made Knight ineligible to run for the office as either a Democrat or Republican.
But Knight maintained he never really intended to run as a Democrat. He called the switch ‘a technological mistake.’ Knight said he changed his affiliation back to being Republican within a matter of hours of making the initial update in the online portal.
After a three-hour hearing, the Wilson Co. Board of Elections voted 4-1 in early January that Knight was not qualified to be a candidate in the race.
On Tuesday, Knight’s attorney Rhyan Breen told the state board that procedural errors in that local hearing deserved another look, and that his client should not be disqualified in seeking elected office.
“Probably one of the more egregious violations is that during the deliberation, the panel allowed one of its own panel members to testify, and this is important because it didn’t happen during the presentation,” offered Breen.
Attorney Andrew Simpson, representing Barbrey, said Knight knew what he was doing. (Photo: ncsbe.gov)State board member Jeff Carmon questioned how Knight could have got through the entire process of updating his address online while overlooking the guardrails put in place to make sure the information he was entering was correct.
“How are you getting over all of these safety steps to say it was a mistake?” asked Carmon.
“He very eloquently calls it a ‘fat finger’,” said Breen in describing Knight’s rush to get to work that day. “Essentially, what he did was just click through the remainder of the boxes as soon as possible until he got to the end.”
“So, for the first time when he clicked it by mistake, fat finger, he meant to hit ‘Republican’ and he hit ‘Democrat’,” Carmon responded. “But then when it listed it all out for him to read and confirm? That’s not a fat finger. He either meant to do it, or are you saying he didn’t read it?”
“He didn’t read it,” said Knight’s attorney.
But attorney Andrew Simpson, representing Barbrey, said Knight knew what he was doing.
In its ruling disqualifying Knight, the Wilson Co. Board of Elections seemed to call the timing of the change into question.
State board member Stacy “Four” Eggers IV reasoned that Knight should be allowed to correct the mistake and take part in the race. (Photo: ncsbe.gov)According to the January 8 ruling, the evening before Knight changed his party affiliation , incumbent Wilson County Sheriff Calvin L. Woodard, a Democrat, sent an email to his staff informing them he would not be running for reelection.
The next morning, Knight logged onto the DMV website to purportedly update his address. At that time, Knight changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.
A few hours later, after learning from Barbrey that Barbrey would also be running for the office as a Democrat, Knight logged back onto the DMV website and changed his party affiliation back to Republican. Woodard has endorsed Barbrey to succeed him.
State board member Stacy “Four” Eggers IV said he viewed Knight’s change as an error that the candidate should be entitled to correct, just as any voter would be allowed to cure a mistake on the ballot.
Board member Bob Rucho agreed with Eggers that Knight should not be disqualified.
“What we’re going to be doing is preventing voters from having a chance to choose candidates of their own,” said Rucho. “And if I make an error, it’s always going to be on the side of giving the voter an opportunity to choose the people that they would like to pick.”
Siobhan Millen, one of two Democrats on the State Board of Elections, urged her colleagues not to overrule the Wilson Co. Board of Elections. (Photo: ncsbe.gov)Siobhan O’Duffy Millen, one of two Democrats on the state board, urged her colleagues not to overrule the local board of elections, which voted against Knight.
“We’re opening ourselves up in the future to a lot of shenanigans,” said Millen. “I think that’s just a Pandora’s box that we shouldn’t get into.”
Board chair Francis De Luca sided with his Republican colleagues in rejecting the Wilson County Board of Elections’ decision to disqualify Knight from this year’s election.
De Luca said the board will discuss in the future whether the DMV website was meant to be more than a vehicle registration portal.
“I don’t think it was meant to handle more than that, but it’s doing a lot more than that now,” De Luca said.
Knight praised the decision late Tuesday.
“Due process prevailed, and the decision now returns where it belongs … the people of Wilson county will finally get to decide who they want to be Sheriff.” said Knight in a statement on social media.
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