Outside influence on Watauga elections board questioned

Voters in Watauga County are questioning which Eggers brother is responsible for a resolution that moved Appalachian State University polling places.

An article published in Sunday’s edition of The Winston-Salem Journal has confirmed the suspicions of many Watauga county leaders that county attorney Stacy “Four” Eggers IV has been influencing decisions made by the Watauga County Board of Elections through his brother Luke Eggers, chairman of the board.

The controversial Aug. 12 resolution closed all ASU on-campus early voting polling sites for the municipal elections and moved them to remote locations with little parking and limited access.

Both Luke and Four Eggers did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A representative at the Eggers Law Firm said the brothers are not commenting.

Kathleen Campbell, the sole Democratic member of the three-person Watauga County Board of Elections, said the controversy started Aug. 9 when Luke Eggers was appointed as chairman of the board.

Campbell said Luke Eggers called for a board meeting without giving the required 48-hour public notice and presented the resolution, demanding that it be put to an immediate vote before board members had the opportunity to read it.

“Luke’s a substitute teacher, and there were a lot of legal-sounding language in it,” she said. “He just didn’t have the know-how to write that, and it wasn’t until (Winston-Salem Journal reporter) Bert Gutierrez looked at the metadata and discovered the digital fingerprint that we had proof he didn’t.”

For Gerry Cohen, special legal counsel to the N.C. General Assembly, the issue is not that Four Eggers was writing resolutions for the board, but that he was exclusively doing it for one member of the board.

“As county attorney, it’s part of Four’s job to write things for groups like the Board of Elections,” Cohen said. “It’s the fact that he had refused to help Kathleen Campbell that presents a problem and raises some ethical issues.”

Campbell said she asked Four Eggers to help write some of her resolutions, but he wouldn’t.

Four Eggers was originally nominated to the county board but was told by the State Board of Elections that his job as county attorney posed a conflict of interest, Cohen said.

“There’s nothing wrong with having a family heavily involved in local politics,” he said. “But it does look a little strange when Four’s brother, Luke, gets the position.”

Now, Campbell said she will appeal to the State Board to return polling sites to campus.

“It’s obvious that (the Eggers are) trying to keep students from voting,” Campbell said. “I think we’re all just surprised at how blatant it is.”

Dylan Russell, ASU student body president, said his administration’s current goal is to help students stay informed and vote.

“We just want to make sure students’ voices are heard,” Russell said.

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