The first of two hearings regarding voter challenges begins at 5 p.m. today at the Beaufort County Board of Elections.

A second hearing is set for 9 a.m. Saturday at the board’s office, 1308 Highland Drive, Suite 104, Washington.

The board scheduled the hearings in response to 139 voter challenges filed earlier this month, including 20 challenges filed 30 minutes before the 5 p.m. Oct. 14 deadline to file such challenges. All of the challenged voters live in Belhaven. Some of the challenges have been withdrawn or dismissed for reasons such as some of the voters are no longer registered to vote in the county or some voters have moved out of Belhaven.

When conducting the hearing, the board will act as a quasi-judicial body. Challengers and challenged voters may provide evidence to support their cases. In cases where the challenged voter does not attend the hearing to respond to the challenge, that challenge will be “automatically sustained,” resulting in that voter being removed from the county’s list of registered voters, said Kellie Harris Hopkins, the county’s elections director.

The challenges, according to Hopkins, stem from a mailing by Ricky Radcliffe’s campaign about a year ago. Radcliffe was a mayoral candidate in Belhaven in 2015, but he lost to Mayor Adam O’Neal. Those mailings were returned to Radcliffe’s campaign because the people mailed the items no longer live at the location where the mailings were addressed to or the mailings were unable to be forwarded, according to Hopkins.

Under North Carolina law, a returned mailing can be used as prima facie evidence that someone no longer lives at that address, Hopkins said last week.

The challengers may withdraw challenges if they receive evidence that shows a challenged voter is properly registered to vote.

Many of the challenged voters are black and/or Democrats, according to lists of the challenged voters. Those lists include the voters’ ages, race, political affiliations, street addresses and post-office boxes.

A challenge may be made for only one or more of the following reasons:

• that a person is not a resident of North Carolina;
• that a person is not a resident of the county in which the person is registered, provided that no such challenge may be made if the person removed his residency and the period of removal has been less than 30 days;
• that a person is not a resident of the precinct in which the person is registered, provided that no such challenge may be made if the person removed his residency and the period of removal has been less than 30 days;
• that a person is not 18 years of age, or if the challenge is made within 60 days before a primary, that the person will not be 18 years of age by the next general election;
• that a person has been adjudged guilty of a felony and is ineligible to vote under G.S. 163-55(2);
• that a person is dead;
• that a person is not a citizen of the United States;
• with respect to municipal registration only, that a person is not a resident of the municipality in which the person is registered;
• that the person is not who he or she represents himself or herself to be.

To view a list of the challenged voters, go to http://www.beaufortncboe.org/node/233.