Protest filed against Dem candidate for N.C. Senate | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the Carolina Journal. The author of this post is CJ Staff.

    An election protest filed by Republican state Senate candidate Bobby Hanig alleges that his opponent, Democrat Valerie Jordan, doesn't actually live in District 3, where they are running for office. After an investigation, Hanig officially filed a protest Monday to request that officials examine records that include her tax filings and Amazon Prime deliveries.

    Filed with the Currituck County Board of Elections, Hanig's request asks that election officials subpoena Jordan's:

1. 2020 and 2021 tax returns
2. NCDOT paystubs and reimbursements
3. Personal bank statements
4. Auto insurance policy for the Lexus with the license plate "DOT 5"
5. Amazon Prime order history since December 2020

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    The filing alleges that Jordan lives in Raleigh instead of District 3, saying that her cars, marked with the DOT district that she represents on the state Board of Transportation, were seen for 23 straight days in July and August at a Raleigh address that she owns. The allegations include that she used that Raleigh address in tax documents related to properties she owns in Warren County.

    According to N.C. law, candidates and state lawmakers must reside in the district they represent. Officials and candidates running for Congress may live in districts other than the one they represent.

    Pat Gannon, public information director at the N.C. State Board of Election, says state law allows a candidate's party to pick a replacement candidate if the party's nominee withdraws prior to absentee ballots being distributed. This year, absentee ballots are slated to be distributed on Sept. 9.

    "If that occurs and there is still time to change ballot content, the replacement nominee's name would be placed on the ballot," Gannon wrote in an email. "If there is not enough time to change the ballots, any votes for the withdrawn candidate will count for the replacement candidate under GS 163-165.3(c)."

    Hanig is currently the N.C. House majority whip and represents District 6. He is running for Senate District 3 after it was reconfigured in redistricting. The district is being closely watched as it could help determine whether Republicans can regain veto-proof supermajority control of the upper chamber.

    Jordan's campaign website says that she grew up in Warrenton and was appointed to the N.C. Department of Transportation Board by Gov. Roy Cooper in 2017. She is scheduled to have a campaign fundraiser with Democratic U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross on Aug. 23 in Raleigh.

    Tickets to that fundraiser start at $150 and go up to $2,500.

    Until the May 17 primary, Sen. Bob Steinburg represented some of the new District 3. About five counties remained the same in redistricting. However, Steinburg was defeated in a primary by fellow Republican Sen. Norm Sanderson after the two were forced into the same district in the new state Senate redistricting map.