The Mecklenburg County Republican Party sent a letter on Oct. 19 to the NC Board of Elections and Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather requesting an investigation into alleged false claims made by Carolina Forward, a Carrboro-based policy organization with ties to Democrats.
The complaint, sent on behalf of the MeckGOP by Charlotte-based attorney Yale Haymond, relies on NC Gen. Stat. § 163-274 (a)(9), which makes it unlawful “For any person to publish or cause to be circulated derogatory reports with reference to any candidate in any primary or election, knowing such report to be false or in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity, when such report is calculated or intended to affect the chances of such candidate for nomination or election.” Violation of the statute is a class 2 misdemeanor.
Three days earlier, the MeckGOP sent a cease-and-desist letter to Carolina Forward, demanding retraction of the alleged false statements and online postings made by the organization weeks prior.
“Carolina Forward falsely claims in its post that MeckGOP is surreptitiously endorsing and supporting three, non-Republican candidates in a non-partisan school board race; and you use a MeckGOP logo in furtherance of this false claim. Specifically, your post ‘alerts’ voters that ‘the @meckgop is trying to “pull a Cotham” again’…and that Mecklenburg Republicans are ‘hiding their involvement and endorsement,'” wrote MeckGOP general counsel Stacie McGinn in the letter.
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