North Carolina board upholds ruling over senator’s residency

RALEIGH (AP) North Carolina’s election board has sided with a legislator over a complaint that alleged he didn’t live in the district in which he was running for the primary.

The board voted 7-1 May 3 to uphold a local elections panel ruling dismissing the residency challenge against Sen. Ben Clark for a district covering Hoke County and part of Cumberland County. A Spring Lake alderman supporting Clark’s primary opponent filed the complaint.

The legislature agreed last year to rework a redistricting map so a Cumberland County home he and his wife now own would sit within the 19th Senate District. But judges edited boundaries to bypass it.

The local panel decided evidence showed Clark hadn’t abandoned the Hoke home Clark says he lives in with his parents to establish Cumberland residency.