Elections board to hold hearing on challenge against Elizabeth City councilman

ELIZABETH CITY

The Pasquotank County Board of Elections will hold a hearing next month to consider two voter registration challenges filed against a city councilman and his wife.

Richard Gilbert and Holly Koerber, vice chairwoman of the Republican Party in Pasquotank, filed the challenges against Elizabeth City Councilman Kirk Rivers and his wife, Nina. They said the couple changed their registration and voted in the May 6 primary before they had lived in their new residence the required 30 days.

During a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Gilbert and Koerber produced a copy of a certificate of occupancy for the address that was dated April 14.

Each said they're only challenging the couple's registration as it was filed and not their rights to vote.

The 30-day occupancy requirement, they said, is printed on the registration card that every voter signs.

In a preliminary consideration hearing, a challenger must present evidence for probable cause to hold a full hearing.

The board recessed Wednesday to get answers to their questions from state election officials.

"I've personally been given conflicting information from experts in this area," County Attorney Mike Cox said Wednesday.

On Thursday, the elections board voted 2-1 that there was enough evidence to warrant a hearing.

William Skinner, who voted against the hearing, said he didn't appreciate the elections board being put through so many challenges and protests.

"We are being used as political pawns, and I don't like being used," he said.

He said he could see no reason why the couple would lie to get a 4th Ward ballot when there was no difference in the ballots they would have gotten if they had voted under their existing registrations.

Chairwoman Michele Aydlett said the board could do nothing more than review the evidence and determine if there should be a hearing.

"The evidence showed a discrepancy," she said.

Both Kirk and Nina Rivers would have an opportunity to respond in the formal hearing, she added.

The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. June 5 in the Pasquotank County Courthouse, courtroom C. It's the same day that one-stop, early voting will begin for the state's runoff elections.

Rivers is already in the midst of an appeal to overturn a determination by the Pasquotank elections board in March that he did not live in the city. Gilbert filed that challenge.

Rivers married last year and said he and his wife were waiting to move to another house under construction in the 4th Ward.

In the meantime, the Elections Board concluded, he was living outside the city at the house where his wife is registered to vote.

His registration card was changed as part of the decision.

His 4th Ward council seat was declared vacant a month ago, and a special election was called to fill it.

However, last week, a Superior Court judge granted a motion to stay the order that changed his registration.

Rivers has returned to the council, and the special election is on hold.

A court hearing on his appeal has not yet been scheduled.

Lauren King, (252) 338-2413, lauren.king@pilotonline.com