Rep. Bishop releases video of alleged election violations, county disputes conclusions

WADESBORO — Rep. Dan Bishop (NC-09) continued his effort to fight voting irregularities in Anson County on Friday by appearing at a meeting of local Board of Elections where they finalized the vote totals for the 2020 election.

Bishop expressed his concern about the incident reports alleging many different violations of state elections law and the board’s handling of those reports. He said he is ready to take further legal action after reviewing video footage from inside the Board of Elections taken during early voting which he claims shows improper action taken by county poll workers, as well as several members of political campaigns.

On his campaign website, Bishop posted a 7-minute video, entitled “Caught on Tape: Illegal Voting in North Carolina” showing 11 alleged instances of a campaign member accompanying voters inside. This title is misleading because the videos do not show, nor purport to show, any illegal act by any voter. Rather, the video focuses on the actions of these campaign members, one of whom is apparently John Montgomery, the husband of Democratic candidate for Register of Deeds, Dannie Montgomery.

County Attorney Scott Forbes told the Anson Record following Bishop’s appearance at the board meeting that these videos “do not show the whole story.”

In the weeks leading up to Election Day, 16 incident reports were filed by election observers and others that either pointed to John Montgomery’s actions individually or addressed actions by others in which he was involved. These reports allege that he and other campaign members violated North Carolina General Statute 163-166.9 which states that any registered voter qualified to vote in the election is “entitled to assistance with entering and exiting the voting booth and in preparing ballots” from the voter’s spouse, brother, sister, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, mother-in-law, father-in-law, daughter or son-in-law, stepparent or stepchild.

The statute additionally requires that a qualified voter receiving assistance must request permission from the chief judge and identify who will be helping them. In Anson County, Sherry Melton is the chief judge granting those voters permission for assistance.

For example, on Sunday, Oct. 25, an observer reported seeing Montgomery asking an older gentleman to pick-up a Democratic sample ballot. Montgomery then allegedly proceeded to ask the gentleman if he needed help to vote, then accompanied him inside the polling location and filled out the circles on the ballot. Several more reports around the same time were filed regarding both John and candidate Dannie Montgomery. The report relating to Dannie alleges she went with the voter through the drive-thru voting site and filled out the bubbles for that voter.

Montgomery, in a statement to the Anson Record, defended his actions, falsely stating that, “Election law enables anyone to assist any voter at their request to the Chief Judge.”

The North Carolina State Board of Elections further explained in a press release, “Any voter, regardless of whether they have a disability, may receive assistance from a near relative” — as opposed to “anyone” — and that “(a)ssistants are prohibited from persuading or inducing any voter to cast a vote in any particular way or to vote for any particular candidate.”

Bishop decried “rampant illegal voting practices during early voting.” Although these incident reports were mainly relating to the Montgomery campaign, Bishop believes these incidents could have impacted his race.

“I won my race, so I’m not concerned for position of having a damage to my candidacy,” Bishop said. “I was elected to congress last year in the special election because of alleged misconduct in terms of balloting in another place in North Carolina. A lot of blind eye has been turned to that. This cannot continue to go on.”

According to Bishop, it is not just related to one race or one person. Videos also show “three activists in the polling site at the same time helping voters.”

“Over the course of about 15 minutes, there were four partisan individuals inside the polling place,” Bishop said. “And we’ve only begun to dig through the video that is available.”

Bishop argues that the videos show appropriate action was not taken to allow voting assistance and that voters requesting help do not appear to be disabled.

“We have recovered video from the DVR that was turned over to us and there is much more evidence to come about the practices during early voting in this precinct,” Bishop told the board. “It is clear from the evidence that is on videotape, that officials here, both the director and other elections staff and this board have flouted their responsibilities to seek to it so that assistance to voters is provided only in accordance with the law.”

Bishop received the county’s DVR system from County Attorney Scott Forbes on Nov. 5. Instead of turning over copies of the video, Forbes gave Bishop the entire system in order to meet the Congressman’s timely demands. This allowed Anson County to avoid a temporary restraining order. Forbes estimated that it would have taken the county 60 hours to process the footage using its own aging system.

Since receiving the DVR system, Bishop has published the videos on his campaign website and a Charlotte news station released the videos on Nov. 12.

Following the release of these videos, Forbes does not believe what Bishop is claiming to be true.

“Those videos show a person coming in to help,” Forbes said. “Those videos do not show the entire story. Those videos show a person walking in the door. They do not show a voter actually interacting with the judge. That is off the camera and off the video.”

When a voter goes up to the window inside the Wadesboro polling location, they speak with employees to receive his or her ballot, but from the camera’s angle, you are not able to see the employee or who is inside the window.

“It is my understanding that the voters in question presented themselves to the window and asked to receive help,” Forbes said. “There is one main person Mr. Bishop seems to be concerned with, that is Mr. John Montgomery. It appears, from the limited footage I have seen, that John Montgomery is entering the building and is helping people vote to the extent it appears he is actually filling out a ballot for someone.”

Melton deferred questions about these incidents to Forbes. Asked on what basis Melton approved these voters for assistance, Forbes told the Anson Record he wasn’t sure.

Based on his reading of the statute, Forbes believes “to stop someone from filling out a ballot for a person that is directing them to fill out the ballot, would actually impede that person’s right to vote.”

How it got to this point

The Board of Elections originally addressed the issue by speaking with the accused campaigners. When reports were still rolling in, Interim Board of Elections Director Sherry Melton sent out letters to all candidates outline the statutes, which was previously sent to each campaign before early voting.

When the supposed breaking of statutes continued, an emergency meeting was called on Oct. 23. After the meeting, the board addressed all campaigners outside of this continuous incident and warned if the action continues the board would move forward in a “stern and strategic” manner.

That of course was not the case as the incident reports continued to come forward.

“Their previous response to it on Oct. 23 was nothing other than cosmetic,” Bishop said. “The video depicts Sherry Melton, interim board of elections director, on the scene as partisans entered with voters to cast votes. We’re continuing to review a luminous amount of video evidence.”

Forbes said the Board of Elections could have removed those with complaints off the premises, but now with the election over, he is unsure if there is anything more the board can do.

“I believe one person was removed during the voting cycle during early voting,” Forbes said. “I don’t believe it was Mr. Montgomery. I believe it was someone else. I don’t know if he was ever removed.”

Forbes is referring to a Republican party observer who, according to the incident report, stood up and questioned if the voter asked for help. After Melton responded yes, the observer approached the voter asking if she was blind.

Bishop was not aware of these incidents until he received a call, which is when he then called Melton. While speaking to her, Bishop said her answers were not consistent to the law.

He continued to seek answers by sending letters to both Melton and the board, as well as the state board of elections, requesting video footage from cameras at the polling site.

Bishop and his team of volunteers have been reviewing the footage from the Wadesboro precinct. From what the videos are showing, Bishop claims evidence is “blooming” to back up these incident reports.

“To sit and act as if nothing has happened or to ignore this is inconsistent with the board’s legal duties,” Bishop said. “In fact, I’ll say this, their neglect of that duty is a criminal violation. It is a misdemeanor. That is a significant issue. It may be ignored by the elections staff, it may be ignored by the elections board in Anson County, it may be ignored by the attorney general and the governor who is responsible for the state board of elections, it may be ignored by the United States attorney, but I’m not going to ignore it.”

Forbes plans on talking with the Anson County Board of Elections about ways to improve the election and how it is run.

“I believe every board and every person in authority, they have an opportunity to always improve,” Forbes said. “Our investigation is not complete. I plan the board will do some things, introspective things, to see if they can improve in the future.”