Following a challenge filed by the Asheville Tea Party and Voter Integrity Project, the Buncombe County Board of Elections on March 27 agreed to go ahead with 95 challenges to voter registrations.

The board dismissed 86 of the 182 challenges the group filed. That total included 55 challenges that met part of the legal threshold for more investigation.

Afterward, tea party volunteer Bill Whitehead told the news media that he disagreed with the decision. �That�s too bad,� he was quoted as saying to the Asheville Citizen-Times. �I�m disappointed.�

Elections board Chairman John Watson, who voted against dismissing the 55 cases where letters to voters were returned undeliverable, also did not agree with the decision.

Watson contended that state law lists the aforementioned number as enough evidence for a full hearing on removing a voter from the roll.

However, board secretary Robert Knapp asserted that the 55 cases failed to meet the other legal requirements of probably cause, as many of them involved pople who voted in 2012 and 2013. 

Board member Lucy Smith voted with Knapp for a 2-1 decision. �I�d really not like to disenfranchise people,� Knapp told the Citizen-Times.