CJ’s Don Carrington reports the infamous Chapel Hill shooter— found not guilty by reason of insanity for two murders and now housed at Butner’s Central Regional Hospital—cast an absentee ballot that was accepted Oct. 15 by the Granville County Board of Elections.
Carrington reports that Williamson’s ballot is part of a “recent stepped-up voter registration efforts at state mental hospitals and facilities for the developmentally disabled.” Is this a problem? Mind you the voting rights of the developmentally disabled are protected by federal law. However, North Carolina General Statute “makes it a Class I felony for anyone other than the legal guardian or close relative of a hospital or nursing home patient to apply for an absentee ballot or fill out that ballot on the patient’s behalf.”
That said, CJ “could find no evidence that legal guardians, close relatives, or trained multipartisan teams were involved in the recent voting activities at state facilities.”