State senate hopeful's campaign saved

Sep. 3—RALEIGH — The N.C. State Board of Elections voted 3-2 Friday afternoon to reverse the Currituck County Board of Elections decision that state Senate hopeful Valerie Jordan was not a resident of District 3, effectively saving her bid for office.

The issue at hand was whether Jordan, a Democrat, was a resident in the district for which she was running to represent. Her opponent, Republican Sen. Bobby Hanig, filed a protest on Aug. 15, stating that there was evidence that Jordan "never moved" to her stated address in Warrenton "or established permanent residency" there "and therefore is ineligible to run for this office."

At a Currituck County Board of Elections meeting on Aug. 23, the two candidates presented their cases. Being the petitioner, Hanig had the burden of proving Jordan was not a resident of Warren County. Photographs show her two vehicles were parked outside her Raleigh address for 23 straight days. Amazon orders were delivered there as well. And, despite registering to vote in Warren, she did not vote there in 2020. Jordan was appointed to the DOT Board in 2017; her profile on the DOT website still shows her as being from Warren but notes that she is a "longtime resident of Raleigh."

Jordan's side showed that her Warren address was listed on her tax returns for 2019 and 2020. Her driver's license, too, lists Warren as her place of residence.

The board agreed in a 3-2 bipartisan vote that Hanig met his burden of proof and that "Jordan has not met the residency requirements for election to North Carolina State Senate District 3," as an order issued Aug. 29 said.

"I thank the [CBE] for their wisdom and attention to the serious matter of Valerie Jordan not living in Senate District 3," Hanig wrote in a press release after the vote. "The Board put partisanship aside and did the right thing for the citizens of Senate District 3."

Currituck officials couldn't remove Jordan from the ballot by themselves, however, as District 3 covers nine other counties. They voted to send it to SBE "for action by it." Their order came at 3:35 p.m. On Aug. 29, Jordan appealed the decision — but that came too late to be considered, Hanig said. He called on SBE to dismiss the appeal outright.

Hanig wrote in a brief that the SBE was faced with one and only one question: "What is the appropriate remedy for the election-law violation the County Board found?" General statutes do not "empower" SBE to go back and reconsider the findings presented to CBE, he said.

The hearing

The state board met Friday in a remote meeting. John Wallace, Jordan's legal representative, argued that the candidate had made clear her intent to make Warren County her domicile, citing the 1972 case Hall v. Wake County Board of Elections, where it was agreed that intent to make a place one's domicile counts towards residency.

"It is our view that none of the evidence established by the protestor fixes Ms. Jordan's place of residence and domicile in Wake County. They now contend that she hasn't abandoned" Raleigh, Wallace said.

Jordan moved to Warren County in 2020 in order to care for her sick mother, who died later that year. "She took numerous steps to establish her residency in Warren County," such as moving personal belongings like family photos, Wallace said. This decision, he said, came before redistricting that included Warren County in District 1.

"The facts admit that she had an intent to reside in Warren County," Wallace said.

The SBE first agreed in a 4-1 bipartisan vote that Jordan's appeal was "timely" and thus legitimate before making their decision on whether Jordan was a resident or not.

Craig Schauer, who represented Hanig, summarized the evidence against Jordan once more. He said that Jordan's appeal was not filed within 24 hours after CBE's decision and was thus "defective."

The SBE requires that a protester file their appeal to a county board of elections within 24 hours after their decision. Wallace said Jordan followed SBE's protest guidelines and thus had five days to submit the form to the state.

The board agreed unanimously that Jordan's appeal was "timely" and rejected Hanig's request. They voted 3-2 in Jordan's favor and reversed CBE's decision.

The candidates respond

"I am grateful that the North Carolina [SBE] came to the correct conclusion today and verified, once and for all, that I am a resident of Warren County," Jordan said in a statement on Friday. "As I have said before, Warren County is my home, and I am proud of the deep roots that my family and I have here."

"I'm glad that Bobby Hanig's political theater is behind us now," she continued, "and I look forward to continuing to talk to voters in this district. They deserve a leader who will fight for them, not someone who wastes their time playing politics."

"I can tell you that that was one of the most egregious overreaches any board of elections could possibly muster. They did not stick to the task at hand," Hanig said. "Their task was to see if CBE weighed all of the evidence before making their decision. They voted on the merits of the evidence. That was not their charge."

"This was a predetermined outcome, which is very evident," Hanig continued, saying Board member Jeff Carmon, who made the motion to reverse CBE's decision, was reading a "preloaded motion" off of his computer.

"Their outcome is strictly based on partisanship," said Hanig. "The evidence is overwhelming that Valerie Jordan does not live in Senate District 3. Any reasonable person that would read the evidence would know that and would come to the same conclusion if they put aside their partisanship — which this board of elections chose not to do."

Hanig said, at the time of calling, "we're talking about appealing the decision right now." If his campaign seeks to do so, SBE Chair Damon Circosta said they should do so quickly, pointing out that the ballots go to print next Friday. The order to do so will go out next Wednesday to meet that timeline.