Absentee voting has begun, primary election day is in less than six weeks, and still, some North Carolina candidates’ place on the ballot remains in limbo.
In recent days, the State Board of Elections and various county election boards have considered challenges to candidates, mostly relating to their residence and party registration. For the most part, the candidates being challenged have come out on top.
Wilson County sheriff’s candidate
For six hours, Bobby Knight was a registered Democrat. He says it was a mistake; his challengers argue that it was strategic.
Knight’s candidate challenge is the only one that’s gone through a State Board of Elections hearing. He is running for Wilson County sheriff as a Republican.
[Subscribe for FREE to Carolina Public Press’ Daily, Weekend and Election 2026 newsletters.]
Knight’s opponents, Republican Kevin Raper and Democrat Brandon Barbrey, both filed challenges against his candidacy on the grounds that he was not a registered Republican for 90 days before filing. Instead, for six hours on Dec. 1, he was a registered Democrat.
According to testimony, Wilson County Sheriff Calvin Woodward told staff he was stepping down Nov. 30. He endorsed Barbrey.
Around 5 a.m. the next morning, Knight said he was trying to change his voter registration address on the DMV website on his phone when he accidentally changed his party registration from Republican to Democrat. Afterward, he called Sergeant Steven Creech to ask who Sheriff Woodward was endorsing, and then Barbrey to ask whether he was running as a Democrat or Republican. Barbrey told Knight he was running as a Democrat.
A few hours later, Knight switched his registration back to Republican. He said he realized he hadn’t received a confirmation of address change, and when he went to check, he noticed the party switch error. His challengers say the timeline suggests a more strategic reason for switching registrations — to have the best shot of making it to the general election.
The Wilson County Board of Elections did not necessarily buy Knight’s story. In a 4-1 vote, they denied him access to the ballot. However, Knight’s appeal to the State Board fared much better.
Tuesday, the board reversed Wilson County’s decision in a 3-2 party line vote.
Board Republican Stacy “Four” Eggers said he believed it was an error, and under North Carolina statute, he thinks they can fix both administrative and voter errors.
Democrats Jeff Carmon and Siobhan Millen were not convinced.
“I think there was evidence shown that he realized there was a mistake once he found out who was running for what office,” Carmon said.
Millen shared concerns about opening a “Pandora’s box” for future late party switch shenanigans.
For now, Knight remains on the ballot. Barbrey told Carolina Public Press that he is still consulting with his legal team over whether to take the case to court.
“It’s getting to the point now where I feel like I’m wasting more time on this campaign challenge than I am focusing on my own campaign,” he said.
But he remains concerned, whether or not he pursues the challenge further.
“The law is black and white,” he said. “It is not red or blue, and as a sheriff, I am sworn to uphold the law how it is written. It’s unfortunate that we take that law, we change it from black and white, and now we are interpreting it with politics involved.”
Raper said he is not going to pursue further action.
Two Buncombe County challenges
The Buncombe County Board of Elections held a lengthy meeting Jan. 20 over two candidate challenges.
The first dealt with Buncombe County sheriff candidate Vic Morman, who switched his voter registration from Democrat to Republican on Friday, Sept. 19, according to DMV records. However, State Board of Elections records did not reflect that change until the next Monday, Sept. 22.
Those three days make all the difference, as candidates must be affiliated with a political party at least 90 days before they file to run as a candidate in that party’s primary. Morman filed on Dec. 18, exactly 90 days after Sept. 19.
The Buncombe County Board of Elections voted 4-1 to dismiss the challenge, and allow Morman to stay on the ballot. Their disagreement hinged on what date was more important in state law: when the State Board recognized and processed a voter party change, or when the voter actually submitted the change.
“There’s a huge difference between transaction date and effective date, and unfortunately, that’s not being documented here,” board member Jake Quinn said. “So in any case, I’m hoping that at some point we can explain the difficulty this poses to the board to our friends at the state (elections board).”
The second challenge was much more contentious. According to local news reports, Asheville City Council candidate Antanette Mosley falsely claimed a primary-residency tax break in Atlanta for years while living in Asheville.
Mosley contends it was an unintentional, automatic renewal, and plans to pay back taxes from 2018 on.
But that’s not the only contention. Between 2008 and 2014, Georgia and North Carolina voting records show that Mosley voted in both Georgia and North Carolina between 2008 and 2014. In 2012, she voted in Georgia’s Republican primary and North Carolina’s Democratic primary.
Double voting is a crime, but it is a particularly hazy area of election law, according to Asheville Watchdog reporting.
Challenger John Miall alleged Mosley has not lived at her stated Asheville address for a while due to damage to that home, and instead leases an apartment. Combined with the homestead exemption and voting issues, it creates a “mixed picture” of Mosley’s residence, he argued.
The Buncombe County Board of Elections did not ultimately decide the challenge based on voting records; they narrowly focused on whether they believed Mosley lived in Asheville based on 2026 eligibility requirements.
“I’ll let all those questions about the past come up in the course of the campaign, should we determine she is eligible,” Quinn said.
In a unanimous decision, the board dismissed the challenge, and allowed Mosley to remain on the ballot. Miall may appeal the decision to the State Board, but he was not immediately available for comment.
Vance County commissioner race
Pending any appeals to the State Board of Elections, Vance County commissioner candidate Robert Brummitt will no longer face an opponent in this year’s elections.
The Vance County Board of Elections upheld Brummitt’s candidate challenge against his sole competition, fellow Republican Kelley Perdue, in a heated Thursday hearing.
Brummitt alleged that Perdue does not live in District 4, where she was running for election, but instead in District 2, where her husband lives.
Perdue said her life is in District 4. She attends church there, is treasurer of Watkins Community Club and owns three properties in Watkins, including her parents’ former home that is now in her name.
In 2023, Perdue said she got property 200 yards from her established residence to build a new home, which is currently in the works. Construction is planned to end around November.
In the meantime, she said she is using her husband’s District 2 address as a mailing address. She also returns to his home at the end of the day, although she spends a significant amount of time at her District 4 home during the day.
Brummitt argued that her husband’s address is her real residence, for candidate filing purposes. The county board agreed in a 4-1 vote Thursday morning.
Perdue plans to appeal the ruling, she told Carolina Public Press. She said the board seemed unprepared to interpret the law, but she believes the evidence is on her side.
Perdue was visibly frustrated at the hearing. She asked county board members where she could run as a candidate, if not District 4. If she ran in District 2, someone would challenge her, she said. They would say that she was registered to vote in District 4, the only place she owns property. Now, she hopes to get that answer from the State Board.
US Senate candidate challenge
Next week, the State Board of Elections will consider a challenge to a statewide candidate, Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Margot Dupre.
According to Dupre’s voter registration, she lives in Charlotte. She registered to vote recently, on Sept. 2, 2025. Since 2022, she has operated a real estate business based in Florida, per LinkedIn. She’s previously filed to run for Congress in Colorado and Idaho.
In his candidate challenge, Fayetteville resident Jerry Reinhoehl alleged that Dupre remains registered to vote in Marion County, Florida. He also noted that her listed North Carolina voter registration address is a UPS Store, not an actual residence.
North Carolina statute requires voters to submit their actual residence — where they live and sleep a majority of the time. Dupre explained why she didn’t do so to the Carolina Journal.
“As a former law enforcement officer, I take the safety of myself and my family very seriously and do not share my personal information unless absolutely necessary.” she said.
Dupre faces six Republicans in March’s primary election. She is all but assured to lose, as former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley’s $1.3 million campaign coffer far exceeds any of his competition.
However, to State Auditor Dave Boliek, Dupre’s situation highlights an overlooked issue in North Carolina elections: voters registering at non-residential addresses. He sent a letter to the State Board asking them to look into the matter more broadly in early January, citing issues with students using campus mailboxes as registration addresses in particular.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here.
