WS Chronicle

Photo by Todd Luck

BY TODD LUCK 

THE CHRONICLE

The Forsyth County Board of Elections (BOE) viewed contested signatures for a potential unaffiliated mayoral candidate during its meeting on Friday, July 1.

JoAnne Allen needs about 6,000 signatures by Aug. 6 to get on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate for mayor. She would challenge Mayor Allen Joines, who is currently uncontested. The petition form, provided by the N.C. State Board of Elections (N.C. SBOE), requires signers to give their name, address and date of birth. That information is run though a computerized petition-checking module provided by the N.C. SBOE to verify that signers are registered voters who live within the jurisdiction of the contest.

Staff then compares the signer’s signature from the petition to the one from that signer’s voter registration information to see if there’s a general resemblance between the two.

Allen contested 11 signatures that were eliminated for not matching, so BOE Director Tim Tsujii had the board examine each one. The board agreed that all but three should still not count.

The BOE sends letters to signers who were disapproved because their information differs from what’s in their registration or because they aren’t registered. So far, 959 letters have been sent out, and 229 have been returned. Tsuji said that several people have come to the BOE office questioning why they received the letter.

Allen said she turned in 3,400 signatures so far and, according to the BOE, 2,320 signatures have been approved as of last week. Allen said that number should be higher. She said she found registrations for many of those who’ve been discounted and that she’ll be providing that information to the BOE.

“It tells me something is wrong with the policy,” said Allen.