RALEIGH — The state Board of Elections has set a preliminary hearing for two members of the Bladen County Board of Elections.
The panel will hear the complaints against Chairwoman Louella Thompson and board member Patsy Sheppard, lodged by Charlotte Smith of Elizabethtown, on Friday at 2 p.m. The board is also hearing other matters for board vacancies in four counties, and a complaint involving Chatham County.
The hearing Friday is preliminary in nature, meaning it is not of a fact-finding mission. Should the board of three Democrats and two Republicans deem either or both complaints to merit fact-finding hearing, it would vote to move to that stage.
Smith’s complaint says the two should be removed “due to incompetency.” Complaints have been filed twice previously, each time simultaneously, against Thompson and Sheppard. Those, related to social media and comments on the BladenJournal.com, were overwhelmingly dismissed.
The complaint against Thompson says the chairwoman showed bias, violated the state open meetings law and allowed derogatory and libelous comments to be made in the Jan. 14 meeting. It says in meetings Aug. 13 and Nov. 12, “she failed to control the meetings” and allowed Sheppard to make “slanderous, disrespectful remarks.” It, in part, concludes by saying she “tried to use her power to prevent citizens from saying the Pledge of Allegiance.”
The complaint against Sheppard says she discussed the pledge during closed session on Jan. 14, thereby breaking the state’s open meetings law, and made derogatory and libelous remarks “showing her (incompetency) lack of intellectual and emotional ability to control her statements in regards to her bias opinions.” Smith referred to a Nov. 12 meeting, saying Sheppard on that occasion “bears false witness on several accounts, and continues to make derogatory, libelous remarks.”
The board member is accused of saying during the Nov. 12 meeting that the pledge “was for white supremists.” In an Aug. 13 meeting, Smith says Sheppard made disrespectful remarks to a veteran and interrupted others trying to speak.