Sampson County Board of Elections members took time Tuesday to look into recent complaints of a mysterious red vehicle going around asking for voter identification in the area.
The incidents reportedly have occurred in the last few weeks, with those involved stopping people in areas like the Walmart and Carlie Cs parking lots. According to information at Tuesday’s meeting, one woman lodged the complaint, saying individuals were walking up to people exiting their cars and asking for information.
“The complaint is suspicious activity with voter identification,” Elections Director Niya Rayner told the board during its meeting. “They’re trying to identify if people are registered, but it doesn’t seem like a voter registration drive. I don’t know what group is doing it, so I have sent it to the state board for them to see. They’ve been investigating some voter registration drives. The state board might ask ‘are we going to do away with drives? But, it has been submitted to the state.’”
Rayner added that pictures of the vehicle and the license plate number of the car were sent to the State Board of Election, although figuring out cases like these could take some time.
“It depends,” she said about the length of time it could take to resolve the issue. “For our part, we send it up to the state Board of Elections. There are different departments in the state board, and in cases like this, if it has to be escalated to the investigations department, or security, another department might have to get involved as well. It would depend on who it escalates to in terms of response. It could be quick or it could be longer on when we get a response.”
It was unknown if the group going around to different businesses, such as the Walmart and Carlee C’s, were actually conducting a registration drive to get voters signed up.
“I know that the state has been looking into voter registration drives, because they have had things, not just in Sampson County regarding those issues,” Rayner explained. “Voters in other counties throughout the state have sent in concerns regarding registration drives to make sure whether they’re official or not. So they have been looking into it to see if there needs to be more guidelines on people and organizations on who conducts these drives.”
The current complaint comes within a time that more and more organizations throughout the county participate in drives, making it difficult in identifying what is a real voter registration and what could be a potential scam.
“We haven’t had this happen too much,” Rayner said. “We’ve had registration drives, of course, and then, closer to election time, third party mailers will send out registration forms to households. Most of the time, it’s been the parties doing drives, but now it seems more organizations of different groups are doing them. We’ve seen an increase of voter registration drives since 2024, and that’s probably the reason why more complaints have come in regarding the drives. Concerned voters are just trying to make sure that this is legitimate, that their names and information aren’t being taken for legal reasons or by scammers.”
For anyone concerned with whether a voter drive is legitimate or not, there are a multitude of options at their disposal to register a complaint or send an inquiry.
“If they do have concerns, they can always call our office, so we send up complaints to the state board,” Rayner attested.
The elections director said residents don’t have to provide information to random people seeking voter registration details. Instead, they can call their local Board of Elections and ask about any drives that could be going on and locations of those drives.
“That’s to make sure they’re registered or to get registered. If someone is coming across pushy (regarding obtaining the information), they are able to call law enforcement as well.”
It was unclear if the group that was spotted at the Carlee C’s parking lot was the same group that appeared in the Walmart parking lot.