(Star News Online) Melissa Gott, once a leading contender to join the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners, was purged from county voting rolls after an elections tribunal on Tuesday ruled in effect that she did not own a permanent residence there.
The ruling, made after Gott chose not to contest a voter residency challenge brought by a local business owner, ends what is arguably the most controversial chapter in county politics in recent months. By invalidating her voter registration, Gott is effectively barred from seeking elected office in New Hanover County for the time-being.
“Ms. Gott has decided to save this board a long, drawn-out hearing which inevitably would require us to reveal private, personal information consistent with our position that Ms. Gott’s voting domicile is, and always has been, for most of the last decade, at 602 Chestnut Street in Wilmington,” said Gott’s attorney, John Ferrante, while reading a statement to the county Board of Elections. The board met Tuesday to hear arguments in the case.
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