For Immediate Release Contact: Lon Anderson
February 22, 2022
BRUNSWICK COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY
CALLS ON COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY
TO STOP ITS BOGUS VOTER CANVASSING ACTIVITIES
Brunswick County Democratic Party Chairman Eric Terashima today called on the County’s Republican party to “cease and desist” the so-called voter canvassing activities of volunteers who are going door-to-door and asking voters questions about their registration and voting history.
A doorbell video recently captured two of these volunteers at the home of an African-American family in Brunswick County in an exchange which left the residents feeling uncomfortable and intimidated.
“Our right to vote is sacred,” Terashima noted, “And defending it must be the goal of any political party, so I am calling on the Brunswick County Republican Party to end—cease and desist—this activity.” The NC Board of Elections has warned against private individuals going door-to-door seeking information to which they are not entitled and confirming that election boards “never go door-to-door.”
The Republican Party has already issued a statement saying that the party has not sanctioned this activity, “But that’s disingenuous,” Terashima said. “The leader of the activity, based upon her own Facebook pages, is the president of one of the Republican Clubs in the County, and presumably many of the participants in this so-called “canvassing” are also from that club. If the party leadership wanted to stop these it could. We are calling on them to do so immediately.”
Both the County and State Boards of Elections have indicated that they have no such voter activity or registration canvassing going on. News stories on CNN and AP have reported volunteer canvassing efforts in other states including Florida where CNN reported that the party registrations of elderly Hispanic voters appeared to have been changed by canvassers.
“This so-called “canvassing” is outrageous and frankly, it’s no one else’s business how you vote, when you vote, or who else may live with you and how they voted. Whatever happened to our secret ballot?” Terashima said. The Justice Department has warned that this kind of volunteer voter canvassing can “have a significant intimidating effect on qualified voters” that can deter them from voting.
According to the Facebook pages of the Brunswick County organizer of the effort named North Carolina Audit Force, the group is associated with America’s Audit Force created by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy. Lindell is allied with former President Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
“People in their homes who greet these rogue volunteers have no need to answer, respond, or participate in these shenanigans that appear to be an attempt to harass, discourage and intimidate some portion of our citizens from voting,” the Democratic Party Chairman noted.
“Further, we need to remember that, despite all of the accusations of widespread voter fraud by the former President and his followers, the government agencies charged with seeking and preventing voter fraud in our nation—federal, state and local--have reported that the 2020 elections were among the fairest and most fraud-free in our history,” Terashima said. “So, there’s no good reason other than harassment and intimidation for these “volunteers” to be out there investigating “voter fraud.”
“We hope our Republican counterparts in Brunswick County will heed our call to end this ridiculous, and offensive effort,” he continued.
“This is not how parties should seek to win elections in our democracy,” Terashima concluded. “I am proud to be leading a County Democratic Party that is focused on making access to voting easier and ensuring that anyone who wants to vote and is legally entitled to do so can. In fact, improving voter access and turnout is my top priority as chairman of the Brunswick County Democratic Party.”
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