When Joe Golden moved to Southport, North Carolina in the spring of 2016, he was excited for the chapter ahead.
Golden and his wife — who were living in Maryland at the time — were eager to ease into their retirement years, and the small coastal town just off the Cape Fear River and the Intracoastal Waterway was the perfect fit.
But not even a year into their move, Golden found himself with concerns about his reputation in his new home: He was accused of voter fraud.
"I was shocked," Golden, 60, recalled in an interview with Facing South. "And I said, 'This must be some kind of mistake.'"
That fall, Golden cast his ballot in Brunswick County in the 2016 state gubernatorial election. But he learned through a call from the county Board of Elections director that he was facing allegations from a county GOP leader of having voted twice.
The Brunswick elections official was able to reach Golden's former county elections board in Maryland to confirm that he hadn't voted in multiple states. But the allegation — along with his name and address — still made its way into the local press.
Golden was one of hundreds accused of participating in voter fraud or casting suspect absentee ballots by former North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory's legal defense team and a group of Virginia attorneys in 2016. In the weeks after the fall election, as McCrory refused to concede his loss, the governor's team challenged ballots in dozens of counties across the state. The vast majority of the...
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