Watts plans to appeal board’s decision

By REGGIE PONDER
Staff Writer

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

The Pasquotank County Board of Elections Wednesday dismissed an elections protest by City Councilwoman Volanda Watts, who lost her bid for re-election last month.

Watts’ protest claimed “voters cast 4th Ward ballots who were not residency qualified to cast ballots in that ward.” But the board found Watts didn’t provide sufficient evidence pointing to any irregularity, misconduct or violation of election law.

Watts told The Daily Advance after the hearing that she plans to appeal the board’s decision.

The protest focused on whether county elections officials had not required sufficient documentation for establishing residency in the case of Elizabeth City State University students residing on campus. Related to the protest was the contention that of the 90-plus ECSU students who voted in the Oct. 6 city election, several lived in Microtel Inn in the city’s 3rd Ward and several others are no longer living in ECSU housing — including one who has listed an on-campus address since the mid-1990s.

State NAACP President William Barber told Pasquotank Board of Elections Chairman Michele Aydlett after the hearing that he thought repeated protests related to voting by ECSU students were part of a statewide trend that “borders on voter intimidation.”

Aydlett responded that the board encourages students to vote.

Watts’ protest was difficult for the board to navigate because it seemed to “hover” — in board member William Skinner’s term — around issues of residency but was not presented as a residency challenge.

Watts said her concern was “the wrongness in the State Board of Elections law” that allows students to be “placed in a precarious situation.”

She said the problems she was talking about were not the students’ fault “and 100 percent they are innocent” because state allows the county Board of Elections to let students living on campus meet a lower standard for documenting residency than off-campus students.

“The students are 100 percent, 100 percent, 100 percent not guilty of anything, of any crime whatsoever,” Watts said.

She said she wasn’t seeking any criminal charges or to overturn the election results. Instead, she wants to change the law because it discriminates against on-campus students.

Pasquotank County Attorney Mike Cox said the hearing was not a proper forum for seeking to change state election law.

Watts also told the board her protest would show the Pasquotank Board of Elections had failed to follow state law.

Cox and Aydlett said the board couldn’t hear a complaint against itself. It would have to go to the State Board of Elections, they said.

Stephen Sylvester, ECSU housing director, testified at the hearing that Microtel is temporary housing for students and does not change their permanent student address from 1704 Weeksville Road.

Watts asked if campus housing was temporary or permanent.

“It is permanent while they’re enrolled at school,” Sylvester said.

Rogelyn McLean, an attorney representing ECSU students on behalf of the NAACP, asked Watts if she was challenging the right of students living in Microtel Inn to cast votes in the 4th ward.

Microtel is located within the city’s 3rd Ward.

Watts said “it has nothing to do with that,” but is about “the entire totality of the process.”

Watts said the county allows students to vote when they have no intention of making the campus residence their permanent home.

But several students testified they didn’t know what they planned to do after graduation.

Watts said the county was not requiring sufficient proof of residency for students living on campus.

Pasquotank County Elections Director Linda Page said the county elections staff follows the instructions provided by the state Board of Elections for registering voters.

Aydlett also said the county board is required to follow what the state Board of Elections directs it to do.

Cox said that Watts, based on her line of questioning with students, should have filed a voter registration challenge rather than an election protest.

Aydlett said the board follows election law regardless of whether students live on-campus or off-campus.

“I see no evidence of an irregularity,” Aydlett said.