A lawyer for an incumbent NC House member said he will the appeal dismissal of an elections protest

Democratic state Rep. Michael Wray plans to appeal the dismissal of one of his election protests. 

Bruce Thompson, one of Wray’s lawyers, sent the elections director in Halifax an email Thursday notifying her that Wray planned to appeal the county board’s unanimous dismissal of his protest to the State Board of Elections. The state board had not received the appeal as of mid-afternoon Friday. 

Wray had also requested a recount in the House District 27 primary, where the winner will represent three rural counties along the Virginia border in the term beginning next year. Vote tallies left the 10-term incumbent trailing challenger Rodney Pierce by 35 votes.

Northampton recounted votes Thursday, and there was no change in the result, the county elections director said in an email. Recounts were scheduled in Halifax on Friday and in Warren on Monday.  The state elections board is scheduled to finalize the official March 5 primary results at a Tuesday morning meeting. 

The Democratic primary winner will essentially be elected to the seat. No Republican is running in the district. 

Wray filed election protests in all three counties that make up  the district. The elections boards in each county dismissed them. 

Wray questioned one ballot in Northampton County and a handful of ballots in Warren and Halifax. 

The Halifax complaint included the allegation that a partisan poll observer distributed sample ballots that encouraged votes for Pierce. Three other candidates in Halifax filed protests with similar allegations. 

At its meeting Tuesday, the Halifax Board of Elections dismissed all the protest petitions, including Wray’s, because none claimed that the poll observer was handing out sample ballots in the voting area or in the buffer zone around the polling place where electioneering is prohibited. 

At the Halifax hearing, Melanie Dubis, another of Wray’s lawyers, presented a scenario where voters who took the sample ballots outside may have later seen the poll observer inside the polling place, “which suggests some knowledge, some status, that other people campaigning did not have.”

Swain Wood, a lawyer for Pierce, told the county board there was no evidence that voters were handed sample ballots inside the voting area or that anyone was intimidated.