It's 5.06 and welcome in to a Monday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. We start off with a busy news weekend across the globe as operations do continue in Iran this morning, the latest from centersquare.com. Combat operations will continue in full force until Americans' objectives are achieved, according to President Donald Trump.
He said that during a second address to the nation late in the day yesterday since Operation Epic Fury commenced in the early morning hours here on the East Coast Saturday morning. Trump described the operation as, quote, the largest, most complex, and most overwhelming military offensive. That the world has ever seen, adding that American forces have hit hundreds of targets in Iran. He called the supreme leader of Iran, who was killed in the initial strike, a wretched and vile man who had the blood of hundreds, even thousands of Americans on his hands, referring to Iran and the large amount of terror proxies that they have funded throughout the Middle East over the last couple of decades. The president claimed that the entire Iranian military command is gone, adding that thousands are offering to surrender, with the president reiterating that he gave the Iranian regime weeks to make a deal, but they declined to do so.
Trump remarked on the announcement from the United States Central Command on Sunday that three U.S. service members were killed in action as a result of the Iranian strike, saying, As one nation, we grieve for the true American patriots who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Even as we continue the righteous Mission of which they gave their lives. We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen. He warned that the operations will continue, saying Americans will avenge their death and deliver the most punishing blow to terrorists who have waged war against us.
They have waged war against civilization itself. Our resolve and likewise that of Israel has never been stronger. America is now again the richest, most powerful nation in the world by far, but the only reason we enjoy the quality of life we do and the freedom and security we have to do the things that we are unable to do is because of warriors who are willing to lay down their lives to do battle with our enemies and do battle better than anyone. This is obviously causing a large amount of news coverage and reaction across the globe.
Some impacts being felt here across North Carolina will likely be gas prices as Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, one of the major global maritime passages for oil transportation, was closed Saturday morning, East Coast time, according to multiple reports. That strait, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of to other popular shipping lanes, has reportedly been receiving VHF, very high-frequency transmissions from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, instructing them that no ships are allowed to pass through the strait. The report comes as the United States Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration had issued an alert to vessels in the region urging them to, quote, keep clear of the area if possible, citing significant military activity, which we obviously saw play out Saturday. The depart that Department of Transportation, specifically the Maritime Administration, wrote, Any U.S.-flagged, owned, or crewed commercial vessels that are operating in these areas should maintain a standoff of 30 nautical miles from U.S. military vessels to reduce the risk of being mistaken as a threat and are strongly encouraged to maintain close contact with the Naval Force Command Center as well as some of the naval's coordination and guidance for shipping, which is something the U.S.
typically provides. Iran had been targeting throughout the day on Saturday Arab countries along the Persian Gulf, including Kuwait, Qatar, Buran, and as well as the UAE, targeting all of those in response to those U.S. strikes early in the day on Saturday. The reported closure comes, of course, during Operation Epic Fury, that coordinated strike on the United States and Israel on the Iranian regime. We have not immediately seen.
Seen a major uptick in gas prices according to AAA. They keep track of gas across the nation. They currently have the national average across the United States at $299.7 a gallon, so just below $3 nationally. That is, of course, risen due to states, I should say, like Washington State and California, where gas has remained at nearly $5 a gallon for quite some time.
However, at North Carolina, price is significantly less. The current average in the state, $2.76. That's actually down from where it was just a couple of weeks ago.
So we'll keep an eye on this in the coming days and weeks. If we see some of these gas prices start to peak due to some of the ongoing operations throughout the Middle East, we'll keep an eye on it right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Well, tomorrow is primary election day across the Tar Heel State. We have been talking. Talking about this a lot over the last couple of weeks. Early voting kicking off back just a few weeks ago. That officially ended.
There is no more early voting taking place. That ended Saturday at 3 p.m. in most counties across the state of North Carolina. And the final numbers, well, they show definitely an increase according to Carolinaelections.com. And our vote tracker product, which is a project of the John Locke Foundation, more than 711,000 individuals voting in the primary election.
That is up, at least during early voting, I should say. That's up about 150,000 votes compared to where that number was back in 2022.
However, the large increase is predominantly on the Democrat side of the ballot. In 2022, during early voting, there was 200,000, a little over 287,000 Republican ballots cast and 295,000 Democratic ballots cast.
However, in this election cycle, there is a huge increase for Democrats, 294,000 Republican ballots, so very much on track with 2022.
However, 416,000 Democrat ballots cast across the state, a major increase in areas where heated Democrat primaries are taking place. Course, here locally, we are keeping an eye on the Mecklenburg County sheriff race. And out of the latest information from the Carolina election tracker, more than 56,000 votes cast in Mecklenburg County during the early voting period. More than 80% of those ballots were cast by either individuals registered as Democrats or unaffiliated voters who had the choice to choose between either a Democrat or Republican ballot. Again, a little over 81% of those ballots cast in Mecklenburg County are of Democrat nature, seeing that major increase in comparison to just a couple of years ago.
Tomorrow morning, before the polls open, we'll, of course, be here live with you and we'll catch up with Dr. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation. He'll walk us through everything that he has seen as he has continued to track the numbers day in and day out ahead of this busy primary election. Tomorrow morning, for your planning purposes, polls. Open at 6:30 a.m.
across most of North Carolina. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. We will start getting results around 9 p.m. tomorrow night. And hopefully, if all goes well, we will have the unofficial final election results by about 11 o'clock.
And of course, we'll bring you all of the details, everything you need to know coming up Wednesday morning for you right here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Yeah. It's 520. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9, WBT. I'm Nick Craig.
A good Monday morning to you. Conversations surrounding voter fraud have been very prominent, both in national and local political circles over the last couple of years. We've been tracking an interesting story over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com, as it relates to a Canadian national who was accused and then charged of voting in federal elections in southeastern North Carolina, both New Hanover and Pender County. We've got seemingly some resolution to that case this morning to walk us through those details. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Mitch, before we get into the most recent court proceedings, can you give us a little backstory as to how this thing came to surface? Sure. We learned last year, I believe it was in the mid-late summertime, that the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Easter District in North Carolina was pressing charges against a man, Dennis Joseph Bouchard, who is a Canadian citizen, but has lived in the United States since the 1960s. And according to the court documents that were filed and what was said by the U.S.
Attorney's Office, it had been discovered that he had been voting in elections in North Carolina for 20 years, despite the fact that he is a Canadian citizen and thus is not eligible to vote in elections in North Carolina or anywhere else in the U.S. for that matter. And so charges were filed against Dennis Bouchard dealing with the most recent federal elections. This is in federal court. It's the federal elections that would lead the charges.
And they were the elections that took place in 2022 and 2024. An indictment was handed down, and then the case sort of sat to the side for a while as we waited for an arraignment. An arraignment that was supposed to take place in late December was put off. And then just before the latest arraignment. There was a clue, if you were looking at the federal court records, that there might be some sort of plea agreement coming.
No one who was not a party to the case could actually open the information and find out about it. But there was a line in the court case that suggested there might be something in regard to a plea agreement. And then What the final resolution was at the date that was scheduled for the arraignment, Mr. Bouchard and his lawyers showed up, as did the lawyers for the federal government before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Numbers, and a guilty plea was entered to two of the counts in the indictment.
Now, you might think, well, how much time is it going to spend? Is it going to spend any time? We don't really know because we haven't seen the plea agreement. And the plea agreement is not going to be reviewed until there is a pre-sentencing investigative report. This is something that's done by the feds: that if there's someone convicted of a crime, then there's a whole set of people who look at the individual.
His or her criminal record, what types of charges there are, and then they come up with a recommendation of a sentence. That is going to take place, even though there apparently has already been some sort of discussion about what the plea would entail in terms of a sentence. And then, Judge numbers, or if it's kicked up to the U.S. District Court judge overseeing this case, who I believe in this case is James Dever, he would look over the reports and make sure that the plea deal doesn't stray too far from what the pre-sentence report would call for. And then, sentencing at this point is scheduled to take place in May.
Mitch, as I understand the facts of this story, the individual in question is not illegally in the United States of America. As you noted, has been in the United States for going on almost 50 years.
However, for those that are not familiar with the process, you can legally be in the United States without being a legal U.S. citizen. Therefore, you do not have the right to vote. How does somebody like that get registered? How are they even able to walk into a voting location, say, hey, this is my name, and actually cast a ballot?
Well, I don't know the details in this particular instance, but one of the allegations that was made was that at some point in the process, whether either it was in registering or in casting a ballot, that at some point Dennis Bouchard checked a box saying he was a citizen of the United States when he's not. And so that was part of what constituted the crime. And my suspicion is that was done during the voter registration process, either going to a county board of elections site and registering or taking part in the early voting registration process where you go through the paperwork. At some point, there, it is alleged in the court documents he checked a box. That indicated he's a citizen, which is something you would have to do to be able to move forward and get to the process of being able to register.
And that, of course, would help constitute the criminal act. Because if you're not a citizen and you say you are, and you sign a document that says, you know, I've signed this under penalty of perjury, that could be something that would lead to the federal charge that we're seeing here.
So I don't know all the details. We might, as this case is finally resolved, hear more details of what happened specifically in this case. But I think one of the things that this has pointed out. And the initial Carolina Journal reporting on this, which I think you wrote the first story, was about the fact that Andy Jackson, who's the director of the John Locke Foundation's Civitas Center for Public Integrity, indicated that this is the type of crime that's hard to detect. Because if someone checks a box saying that they are a citizen, there is no check of that.
There is no process that calls for everyone's citizenship to be confirmed before they're able to vote.
So you're basically, in some respects, on the honor system. And it would be up to the only way a crime like this would come to light is if there's some sort of reporting to authorities that, hey, this person is not a citizen, but has been voting, and then an investigation would go forward, which is what happened in this case. But as was suggested from the initial reporting from the U.S. Attorney's Office, it's been alleged that Dennis Bouchard was voting for 20 years or more in North Carolina. And it was only recently that there was some sort of complaint or tip or alert that led authorities to reach him and to lead to the indictment, which has now led to.
guilty plea. Yeah, a couple of things here to make sure we mention, as you noted at the top, Mitch, some accusations that this has been going on for potentially 20 years, if not longer, but these charges flowing down from the feds, only dealing with two of the more recent federal elections, 2022 and 2024. And from some of the original reporting on this and folks asking, well, you know, how does this come to light? I guess one of the main examples would be somebody bragging about it and saying, hey, I'm going out and I'm voting. The individual knows that they are not legally a U.S.
citizen. Legally in the country does not mean you have the right to vote and could lead to somebody tipping off the feds and saying, hey, I might want to check up on this guy. He says he's voting, yet he should not have the right to do so. Yeah, it could be bragging, or it could just be the case that someone talks to the neighbor. Knows the neighbor has voted because they've discussed it and then realizes, wait a minute, this person is not a citizen.
How is he able to vote? They check in with someone, find out, you know, what is the deal? How is this non-citizen able to vote? And somewhere in the point of the discussion, someone suggests, well, we ought to alert the authorities because that's not something that should happen. One of the original things that came out in the statement of this case from the U.S.
Attorney Ellis Boyle was: a reason to prosecute this type of crime is that every vote from someone like this who's ineligible. nullifies the vote of someone else.
Someone else who voted the other way, that vote was canceled out by this vote from a noncitizen who should not been should not have been able to vote. Yeah, absolutely. And Mitch, you and I vote for different people. It's essentially a wash. One vote for one, one vote for the other.
Mitchell, keep us up to date as we get closer to what that sentencing, what some of the penalties could look like. You can read our original coverage and this most recent information over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update this morning. Mitch Kokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. The holidays are all about connection.
Good food, good friends, and those cozy moments. This season, skip boring mocktails and celebrate with RK, the world's first zero-proof spirits. All the taste and warmth of your favorite holiday pours with zero alcohol, zero guilt, and the patented warm molecule for that festive kick. Perfect for toasting, hosting, or gifting. Celebrate freely with RK Zero Proof.
Visit rkbeverages.com. Bye. It's 536. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour. Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM.
WBT, I'm Nick Craig. A good Monday morning to you. Primary election day kicks off tomorrow across the state of North Carolina. We watched the early voting period unfold over the last couple of weeks. And for those voting in the Republican primary, turning our attention to the top of the ballot, the top race, the United States Senate, you'll notice a candidate on there if you either have voted during early voting or planning on casting a ballot tomorrow by the name of Margot Dupree.
We've covered her here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. It was a pretty interesting hearing back a couple of weeks ago in front of the North Carolina State Board of Elections in which individuals were challenging her residency here in the state of North Carolina. The state board ultimately disqualified her from the contest.
However, due to the fact that absentee ballots had already been mailed out, overseas votes had already started trickling in, and state or county board of elections. Excuse me, had already printed out thousands of ballots. Her name does remain on that ballot, and you will see that if you show up and vote tomorrow. Walks through some interesting details on that this morning. Mitch Gokai from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Mitch, how's my summary on all that? Are we up to date with the latest on Margot Dupree? You are. I think it's worth mentioning that not only does she appear on the ballot, her name is First by the way that the ballot order came out. That's the first name you'll see.
And it's interesting that we learned from a state Supreme Court filing late last week that. Her votes are going to count. That you might think, well, that's bizarre. The State Board of Elections disqualified her, but her ballots are going to count. And here's why.
As you suggested, The residency challenge that said that she did not live in North Carolina long enough to qualify as a candidate for the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. That challenge came late in the game after it was already going to be apparent that people had cast votes. And so the way that the State Justice Department lawyers explained it in a court filing at the North Carolina Supreme Court, and I'll get to why it's at the Supreme Court in just a bit, the way they explained it is that nothing within state law be thrown out at this point.
So what happens is people will vote. and her votes will count. And they'll be part of the final tally, even though the State Board of Elections has disqualified her.
Now, there is something that can be done if she were to somehow become the person who'd get the most votes, and we'll talk about that in a little bit. But the reason why this is at the North Carolina Supreme Court. is that Margot Dupree is challenging The State Board of Elections decision to disqualify her based on the residency challenge. She first went to the State Court of Appeals, and on February 17th, the Court of Appeals threw out the request.
So after that happened, she appealed to the North Carolina Supreme Court, asking the Supreme Court to step into this residency challenge.
So the latest ruling in which we got the details about how her votes were going to count came from a court filing from the North Carolina Department of Justice representing the state board of elections. And it basically spelled out that. There's no need for the state Supreme Court to step in here because nothing's happening at this point that either removes Margot Dupree from the ballot. or disqualifies her votes from counting. She's on the ballot.
Her votes are going to count. The only thing that could potentially happen if she were to secure the most votes is that a state law. allows for uh sets up a process for a party to replace A candidate on the ballot if the candidate who secures the most votes is somehow disqualified, which would be the situation that would happen. If Margot DuPree somehow got the most votes and was going to be the likely nominee, then there is a state law that would allow for the Republican Party to step in and put a new person on the ballot in her place. And so that's why the Justice Department lawyers representing the State Board of Elections said to the state Supreme Court.
There's no need for you to step into this case. She's on the ballot. She's going to stay on the ballot. All of her votes are going to count. The only reason that there would be a cause for her to complain is if she ends up getting the most votes, and then the state party comes in and puts someone else's name on there because she's been disqualified.
And for those who are wondering, oh, is there a chance that Margot Dupree might. put North Carolina Republicans in this position. It's unlikely. The latest Carolina Journal poll, which was of likely Republican primary voters, put Michael Watley in first place. Actually, first place was 50% saying they were unsure, which is kind of interesting, just days before the election, which will be finalized, as you said, on Tuesday.
50% said they were unsure. But after that answer, the highest answer by far was Michael Watley, 38% of the vote. The next highest vote total was Don Brown at about 7.5%. way down at 0.6%. was Margot Dupree.
So It's likely that she will get some votes. and that she will have a tally in there somewhere in the neighborhood of the Fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh place finisher among the seven who are running for this Republican primary nomination. But it's very unlikely that we will see the scenario that the Republican Party would have to invoke a state law and replace the nominee because the nominee has been disqualified. What's most likely to happen is Margot Dupree will be on the ballot, she'll get some votes, those votes will be counted, and it won't end up making a difference to the actual nomination. Yeah, well, she's gotten a lot of free media attention, Mitch.
Stories running all over the state of North Carolina talking about this residency challenge. She definitely has gotten some name ID from that, but as you noted, just pulling up a 0.6% on our most recent Carolina Journal poll last week. Probably not likely to translate into a landslide electoral victory coming up later on Tuesday night.
So the appeal that she is seeking, you mentioned going through the Court of Appeals now over to the state's highest court. She's challenging her residency requirement, correct? The thing that actually kicked her, essentially disqualified her from this position. Yes, she is challenging the residency challenge itself because that's how this happened. It wasn't that the state board of elections on its own said, We decree that Margot Dupree is not a North Carolina resident and thus she cannot appear on the ballot.
What happened was another voter challenged her residency and said, Look, this person's not a resident of North Carolina. She shouldn't be on the ballot. The state board of elections held a hearing. After the hearing, issued a decision agreeing that she did not meet the qualifications to be a candidate in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, and so she was disqualified.
That decision, though, had taken place after, as you've already talked about, the election process, the primary election process had already started. People's ballots were already finalized, and so there was nothing that allowed the state board then to go back. And have those ballots reprinted and have her name removed. And so, what the law calls for. is for that name to remain there.
for the votes to be tabulated, counted, reported. And then the only reason you would ever have to do anything else is if she ended up being the highest vote receiver. And if that were true, then another state law could be invoked that would have the Republican Party replace her because of the disqualification.
So it's likely that all of this is moot and the state Supreme Court doesn't really have to get involved in any way to make that happen because everything is going to play out as an election normally would. And the only reason you would have to do anything else out of the ordinary is if she got the highest vote total. And then this other state law would kick in that says the party has to spells out the process for the party to replace a nominee if that nominee has been disqualified. It's unlikely, as we said from the polling, that she will be the nominee.
So this is probably pretty much the end of her story. Yeah, and Mitch, we've seen this not only here in North Carolina, but across the nation as well. Not this exact situation, but where candidates die. I mean, you've got these primaries that take place earlier in the year. Of course, freak accidents and awful atrocities take place.
Somebody wins the primary. They pass away sometime before the general election period. And it is typically the executive committee of either a state or local Republican party or Democrat party that says, hey, this is our new candidate. Obviously, when you get closer to the actual election period is when you get into this kind of weird spot that we are right now where ballots are already out there. People in some cases already have casted votes for that individual.
But if it happens in kind of that middle gap between the primary and the general, that is a process that we have seen before. We have, and there have been other situations where someone is a candidate and is convicted of a crime or something of that sort, so they are no longer eligible, and that could be the same situation. Plus, it's a little bit different when you're talking about the primary ballot versus the general election ballot, because the general election pretty much settles everything.
So, if something happened that was of concern about a candidate and the name was on the ballot for the general election, that's a little bit different than the primary because the primary helps the parties come up with their candidates. But then those candidates compete in the general election.
So there's really more lead time, especially now that North Carolina moved its primaries from May to earlier in the year in March. That really does give the parties more time to deal with some sort of unusual situation in which the nominee that you expected when the primary was held is not the person who actually is going to be able to wage an election contest for November. We will keep an eye on the vote totals for Miss Dupree as those begin to roll in sometime late tomorrow evening. We appreciate the update this morning. Mitch Cokey from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour.
Uh Good morning again. It's 5:54. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9, WBT, the UNC system and its leaders have approved an overhaul of their academic freedom policy. This happened last week as the UNC Board of Governors voted unanimously to approve a new definition. This came after months of discussion.
The move comes as the system rolls out a new syllabus transparency policy as well as some new classroom oversight measures. All the way back in January, UNC system president Peter Hans decided that core syllabuses are public record, not intellectual property, and noted that they must be posted online in a searchable database. Until now, the UNC policy manual affirmed academic freedom as essential.
However, it didn't actually define what that meant. That has now changed. Under the new language, academic freedom is described as a foundational principle protecting faculty's rights to teach, research, and engage in scholarly inquiry, all of that without undue influence. But, and this is a key, the policy also makes clear that academic freedom is not absolute. Faculty must operate within the boundaries of their discipline, professional standards, and university policy.
The new definition specifically says that academic freedom does not include teaching content that would be defined as unrelated to the course, nor does it allow using university resources for political or ideological advancement, which would be in violation of policy. The updated code lays out what is permitted, including teaching controversial or unpopular ideas related to the subject matter, as well as presenting diverse perspectives, grading based on academic criteria, and participation. participating in shared governance. The new policy from the UNC board, this is the entire UNC system, not just Chapel Hill, also lays out what is not prohibited, like straying from course descriptions, ignoring accreditation standards, or refusing to follow institutional policy. The policy gives administrators the authority to step in if faculty conduct violates professional norms, creates a hostile learning environment, or undermines the university's educational mission.
However, not everybody is on board with this. The North Carolina Conference of American Association of University Professors noted that the move could limit open inquiry and represent some level of political interference. The UNC Chapel Hill chapter of that organization raised concerns, arguing that parts of the new language are, quote, vague and could chill speech.
So while the Board of Governors calls this clarity and accountability, some of the critics are warning that it may narrow.
Some of those boundaries. We've got additional coverage of that this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. That's going to do it for a Monday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News is next. Followed by Good Morning, BT.
We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Stalk, 107.9 WBT.
