Democrat Jeff Jackson requests investigation into GOP opponent’s voter registration

Democratic congressional nominee Jeff Jackson on Thursday asked the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections to investigate whether his Republican opponent Pat Harrigan is fraudulently registered to vote in Mecklenburg County.

Jackson and Harrigan are competing for the 14th Congressional District, which includes uptown Charlotte, southern and western Mecklenburg County and much of Gaston County, including Gastonia.

In a letter to the Mecklenburg Board of Elections, Jackson claimed Harrigan registered to vote in Mecklenburg County and voted twice despite it not being his permanent residence. Harrigan has a home in Catawba County, which is outside of the district where he’s running.

Candidates are allowed to run for congressional districts where they don’t live. Jackson argues in his letter, though, that the Board of Elections should investigate whether Harrigan improperly voted and registered to vote in a county where he doesn’t permanently reside.

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Paul Cox, general counsel to the State Board of Elections, wrote in an email Thursday to Mecklenburg County Elections Director Michael Dickerson that a county board of elections is not authorized “to investigate and remove a registrant or determine a candidate on the ballot is ineligible on its own, based on an outside complaint.”

Cox wrote that investigating requires a formal voter challenge. Jackson has not filed a formal challenge and is seeking guidance on whether that would be appropriate, he said in a text message to The Charlotte Observer.

Jordan Shaw, Harrigan’s advisor, said in a statement to the Observer Jackson’s complaint is “a bogus distraction from a radical leftist lawyer who is closer in the polls than he wants to be, and is desperately trying to change the subject from his disastrous inflation-causing policies.”

Shaw said Harrigan “absolutely” intends to live in the district permanently, and that Harrigan put his Catawba County home on the market in the early spring. Harrigan and his family are still waiting for the house to sell.

According to the state Board of Elections website, people must live in the county where they register and have resided there for at least 30 days prior to Election Day. In his letter, Jackson cites a state statute that says people are not considered to have gained residency if they come there only for temporary purposes and don’t plan to make it their permanent “place of abode.”

Here is the timeline Jackson lays out in his letter:

▪ Harrigan registered to vote in Mecklenburg County on April 3 and voted as a Mecklenburg County voter in the May 17 primary. He registered to vote out of an apartment building in south Charlotte.

▪ In an interview with WFAE, Harrigan said he planned to move his family to the 14th District if he won the election. That story published May 26. WFAE also reported Harrigan “said he’s been spending most of his time during the campaign at a South Park apartment.” Harrigan also voted in Charlotte’s July municipal election. Not included in Jackson’s letter is that Harrigan’s wife, Raquel Harrigan, also registered in Mecklenburg County in early April and voted in both the May and July elections.

Jackson cited North Carolina statutes setting rules for how people can register to vote. He also cited a North Carolina Supreme Court case in which the court wrote “that residence, when used in the election law, means domicile” and that a person’s domicile means a “permanent, established home as distinguished from a temporary, although actual, place of residence.”

Jackson told the Mecklenburg Board of Elections that public records and Harrigan’s behavior suggest Mecklenburg County is not Harrigan’s domicile.

“Instead, the facts seem to indicate that Mr. Harrigan’s domicile remains his family’s home in Catawba County, and his registration transfer to Mecklenburg County was for political purposes and only temporary,” Jackson wrote.

Shaw, Harrigan’s advisor, said in his statement that “if having an apartment doesn’t qualify as legitimate to Jeff, maybe he should tell half the people in Mecklenburg their vote shouldn’t count.”

The election is Nov. 8. In-person early voting starts Oct. 20.