Wake elections officials approve Grafstein's reelection bid

State Sen. Lisa Grafstein does live in the new political district she’s running for in the 2024 elections, the Wake County Board of Elections decided Thursday in a unanimous rejection of an attempt to remove her from the ballot. It was win for the Democrat who was drawn out of her Raleigh district when Republican lawmakers crafted new voting lines last year.

The decision came on the final day to file candidate challenges for the 2024 election. State and local elections boards have been kept busy in recent weeks as they examine disputes over candidates’ eligibility all around the state.

Grafstein, who currently represents parts of north Raleigh in the state Senate, saw her district moved to southern Wake County, centered around Garner and Fuquay-Varina, in last year's redistricting process. She moved to that new district late last year and filed to run for election there, although she also continues to hold her north Raleigh seat because the new map that gets rid of it won't go into place until January 2025.

"I think it was pretty clear that I moved, and did exactly what I said I was going to do," she told reporters after the elections board approved her to be on the ballot for the new district on Thursday.

One of the Republicans also running for that new district, former Apex Councilman Scott Lassiter, filed the complaint against Grafstein's eligibility to run for office in southern Wake County. He can appeal the county board's decision to the State Board of Elections, but said Thursday he wasn't sure if he would.

Lassiter also said Thursday he didn't believe Grafstein was a bad person and that he wasn't challenging her candidacy to try to get rid of a potential opponent, but rather because he thinks it's important that voters have confidence in the electoral system. He referenced the fact that Grafstein is in a tricky legal situation at the moment: Representing a Senate district in north Raleigh while also running for election in a district in southern Wake County that won't come into existence until next year.

"Senator Grafstein, in my opinion, shouldn’t be having it both ways," he told the elections board.

The Republican-controlled Senate hasn't voted to remove Grafstein from office, nor have top leaders suggested that they would.

New voting districts put Grafstein's home in the same district as fellow Democratic Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, a top member of party leadership, and moved District 13 to southern Wake County — a new district with no incumbent, one that's expected to be competitive for Republicans in the 2024 elections. The GOP currently holds none of Wake County's six Senate seats, and only one of the 13 House seats.

After the maps were approved, Grafstein moved to a new residence in the new Senate District 13, in southern Wake County, to be eligible to run for reelection. But that required her to move outside the borders of the old Senate District 13, in north Raleigh, that she currently represents.

On Thursday Erica Porter, chair of the Wake County Board of Elections, said the decision to approve Grafstein's candidacy was simple: The rules say legislative candidates have to live in the district they're seeking for at least a year before election day — which this year is on Nov. 5 — and Grafstein provided numerous documents showing that she had moved to her new home in time.

"It’s pretty clear cut to me," Porter said just before the board voted 5-0 that Grafstein is eligible to run.

While Grafstein's victory Thursday means she can run for the new seat, it didn't address the other question of whether she can continue serving in the Senate despite no longer living in her current district.

In November, the North Carolina Republican Party called on Grafstein to resign from the Senate, saying she was no longer qualified to hold office since she moved.

"The N.C. Constitution is clear: state lawmakers must live in the district they represent," state GOP spokesman Jeff Moore said.

The constitution doesn't address continued residency in the district during the term of office.

Grafstein said she would not resign her seat, calling it a “cynical” demand. Senate Leader Phil Berger has also since said that Senate Republicans were unlikely to seek to expel her, despite having the votes to do so.

Grafstein is the only LGBTQ+ senator as well as one of the chamber's most liberal and vocal members. She has questioned whether Republicans targeted her in the new maps due to her tendency to speak out against anti-LGBTQ+ bills and other legislation Republicans support.

Republican leaders generally haven't addressed criticisms of the new maps, saying they have broad authority to draw the lines as they please, and that many of their decisions were geared toward political gain, which state law allows.  

Grafstein called the challenge to her reelection bid "baseless and political." Grafstein is the only Democrat running for the seat. Lassiter faces Republican primary opponent Vicki Harry of Fuquay-Varina. Libertarian Susan Hogarth of Raleigh is also running for the district.

In a separate hearing Thursday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections appointed a five-member multicounty panel to hear a candidate challenge in the race for a district court judge’s, which includes Franklin, Granville, Person, Vance and Warren counties.

The challenge, filed by Democratic election attorney John Wallace on behalf of Granville County resident Caroline Folger, claims that Republican candidate Adam Watkins doesn’t actually live in the district.

According to the challenge, to be eligible for the seat, Watkins claimed to have moved from his family’s home in Durham County to a residence in Person County. But the home in Person County is actually owned by political allies of Watkins who don’t appear to live there, the challenge says, adding that Watkins doesn’t appear to live there, either.

Watkins didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The state board appointed a special panel of three Democrats and two Republicans to hear the challenge, consisting of two members of the Franklin County Board of Elections and one each from Granville, Person and Vance. No date has been set yet for that hearing.

On Wednesday, the Rockingham County election board upheld a challenge filed against Joseph Gibson III, a Republican seeking to challenge incumbent Rep. Reece Pyrtle in the primary for his Rockingham County district.

The challenge was filed by county Republican party chairwoman Diane Parnell, claiming that Gibson had a felony record in Connecticut before he moved to Rockingham County.

Having a felony record doesn’t disqualify a candidate for state House in North Carolina. But candidates are required to be qualified voters, and felons cannot vote until they’ve completed all of their sentence, including probation and parole.

In her challenge, Parnell said Gibson hasn’t supplied evidence that he has discharged his sentence, although the last felony he was convicted of was in 2001. She asked the board to investigate whether the conviction disqualifies him.

Gibson told WRAL News that his sentence was completed more than two decades ago, before he moved to North Carolina to start a small business. He contends that he’s still eligible for candidacy — he actually ran against Pyrtle in 2022, coming in a distant second in the GOP primary. He also voted in 2020 and 2022, state records show.