The Voter Integrity Project (VIP) has reported that a poll worker in Wake County attempted to suppress the votes of several unaffiliated voters last week during the start of early voting for the special June 7th primary election.

Via VIP:

On May 26, 2016, the first day of early voting Jack Spence (a retired US Marine and an airline pilot) and his wife, Bea, voted at the Wake County BOE headquarters and the check-in desk employee, a life-long registered Democrat, named Jan Torrey, incorrectly told the couple they could only have either a Democrat ballot or a Nonpartisan ballot. As a result, both took ballots that prevented them from voting in the congressional primary candidates, which was their right. After elevating the problem to a Help Desk and then to the site Supervisor, Bea was given a new ballot, since she had not yet cast her original one, and Jack, who had already cast his ballot, was allowed to cast a provisional ballot. Hear their account of the incident by clicking this link.

The first couple might have been a fluke, but she repeated the pattern. Keep reading.

The head of VIP, Jay DeLancy, decided to verify this couple’s account himself. He headed into the polling area and encountered the same woman who served the couple. She pulled the same thing on DeLancy by skipping the Republican ballot choice entirely.  He finally got her to give him one after questioning her a bit.

DeLancy recorded the encounter on his cell phone.

Watch: 

DeLancy: “So, which ballots can I get? I’m confused now.”

Torrey: “You can get the Democratic, the Libertarian or the Nonpartisan. The three of them are the same, because there’s not a candidate for Congress. The District 4 Democratic [sic] have David Price and no one has challenged him.” [Fact: Price has two Republican challengers.]

DeLancy: “Okay, um, those are my choices huh? Okay.”

Torrey; (While pointing towards the entry way,) “Uh huh. (nodding). If you want to look at the ballots, they’re [unintelligible]. The, uh, ones that are the non-affiliated only have the Judges.”

DeLancy: “So I can get a Democrat or a Non-affiliated…”

Torrey: (Interrupts) “Libertarian. The Republican or the Nonpartisan.”

DeLancy: “Okay, so I can get the Republican ballot?”

Torrey: “Yes. (Shaking her head, no.) Sorry. (Looking down at computer screen,) You may get that one.”
An incident report has been filed and there is a lot more detail in the VIP article, so go read the whole thing.  Voters should be made aware that they can look up their voter registration and see what ballots are available to them BEFORE going to the polls.