Council member to be contested at end of month
Robbinsville – The first of two voter challenges pertaining to the outcome of the 2021 Town of Lake Santeetlah election results has been set.
John and Tina Emerson will be challenged at a 9 a.m. hearing Wednesday, Sept. 28, at the Graham County Community Building, 196 Knight St.
The outcome of the November election upset the apple cart in the tiny community of Lake Santeetlah. Tina, Ralph Mitchell and Connie Gross had each been voted to the town’s council when the dust settled – all via write-in, getting 14 nods of approval each. In totality, there were 67 write-ins (52.37 percent of the total votes cast in the municipality).
Incumbent council member Diana Simon – who has received the most votes during the last two elections, including 22 in the 2021 race – took umbrage with the results, stating her “surprise” at the final percentages in an email sent shortly after the poll to Graham County Board of Elections Director Teresa Garland.
The only other incumbent re-elected – then-mayor Jim Hager, who was voted in via fifth-place tiebreaker, after receiving 11 votes – later joined Simon’s multi-month investigation into the eligibility of eight different voters – John and Tina, plus the Hutsell family (comprised of Amelia, Dean, Kaylee, Linda, Olivia and Savannah), residents who lost their Lake Santeetlah home to a 2018 fire and have not lived in the town since. Efforts to rebuild the home are still underway.
Simon, Hager and Asheville-based attorney John Noor were granted a July 7 preliminary hearing by the board of elections to see if enough details existed for an evidentiary hearing. During the three-hour session, Noor broke down several key points that supported Simon and Hager’s extensive homework, including:
* The Hutsells and Emersons all switched their voter registration from Buncombe and Mecklenburg counties – respectively – in September. Prior to that, the Hutsells had voted in Buncombe County (their residence is in the Asheville suburb of Fairview) since 1992, with the Emersons have voted in Mecklenburg since 2004 – though the couple did quickly switch their registrations before the 2017 and 2021 elections. John and Tina maintain a residence in the Charlotte suburb of Matthews;
* A nonprofit, monthly Fairview newspaper spotlighted 35 years of service by Dean Hutsell at a veterinary clinic. In the article, Dean said, “Fairview has been a wonderful community and continues to be the best place to live.” The story ends with Dean stating, “I suppose that Fairview is best described as our family home, and we look forward to serving our community for many more years;”
* The four Hutsell children – Amelia, Kaylee, Olivia and Savannah – each listed differing hometowns as their residences on social-media platforms, a mixture of Asheville, Fairview and Raleigh;
* A whopping 85 pictures were taken from November – March of the Emersons’ Lake Santeetlah residence, as well as the progress made on the Hutsells’ re-construction.
The board of elections hinges much of its argument to N.C. G.S. 163-57 – an admittedly vague stipulation that says a voter simply has to state an “intention” to reside in a county in order to register to vote.
“All election officials in determining the residence of a person offering to register or vote, shall be governed by the following rules, so far as they may apply: (1) That place shall be considered the residence of a person in which that person’s habitation is fixed, and to which, whenever that person is absent, that person has the intention of returning …” reads the beginning of the statute.
The four Hutsell children each stated an intent to retire to Lake Santeetlah when switching their registration from Buncombe to Graham County.
After the local board of elections unanimously approved that an evidentiary hearing was justified – Simon and Hager’s first victories throughout the process, as quick paperwork filed soon after the election were either the wrong forms to file or incomplete, resulting in both local (Nov. 17) and statewide (Dec. 6) dismissals – board attorney Bill Cannon began working with Noor to determine the best dates for the evidentiary hearings.
The Hutsells’ hearing has not been set, though the earliest forecast is late December or early January.
Absentees mailed
Meanwhile, the 2022 general election is underway.
Beginning Friday, absentee ballots were mailed to voters that request one. According to a release from the N.C. State Board of Elections, almost 53,000 of the 7.35 million voters registered statewide had already requested an absentee ballot.
To request an absentee ballot in Graham County, call the local board of elections office at 828-479-7969. You will have to provide a valid form of identification and the last four digits of your Social Security Number when making the request.