NC Senate hopeful can’t run in Steele Creek, election board says. Now he’s appealing.

A state Senate hopeful didn’t provide enough evidence at an elections hearing Monday night to prove that he lives in Steele Creek and is eligible to run for the open District 39 seat.

In a 3-2 decision, the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections upheld a candidacy challenge to remove Darrell Bonapart, a Democrat and longtime east Charlotte resident, from the ballot.

“All he had was a lease, yet verbally, he admitted he never slept there,” Kristin Mavromatis, spokeswoman for the board, said in an interview Tuesday. “The three who voted against felt they wanted documentation — something, anything, from June to November.”

During the hearing, Bonapart failed to provide a transaction history to show he’d been living in Steele Creek and paying rent, Mavromatis said. Bonapart also didn’t bring his Steele Creek landlord, Kimberly Montgomery, to testify on his behalf, Mavromatis said.

Instead, Bonapart, a disabled military veteran, gave the board copies of recent medical records to explain why he hadn’t been sleeping at the Steele Creek home.

Bonapart didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment on Monday and Tuesday. He previously told the Observer he hadn’t planned to launch a Senate bid until the new legislative maps were approved in September.

Bonapart told the board Monday that he plans to appeal its decision to the State Board of Elections.

That could potentially stymie Mecklenburg’s plan to mail out absentee ballots next week, Mavromatis said. Democrat DeAndrea Salvador and Republican Joshua Niday have also filed to run in District 39, which includes Ballantyne, Pineville and Steele Creek.

Burden of proof

Bonapart, who said he had been renting a room in a Steele Creek home since June 30, continued to vote in an east Charlotte precinct on Aug. 30 and Oct. 26, the board found.

“It is the candidate’s duty to produce the evidence to carry his burden of proof,” said John Gresham, a Democratic Board of Elections member who voted to disqualify Bonapart. “And when the candidate has advised the polling workers at an early voting site his residence is in east Charlotte, that’s evidence that needs to be explained.”

Bonapart’s voting activity was inconsistent, the board found, with a state law that requires state candidates to live in their district for one year ahead of the general election.

Bonapart waited until Dec. 20 — the final day to file for office — to also change his address to Deshler Court in Steele Creek, which is in state Senate District 39. The area has changed drastically through redistricting since Dan Bishop, now a congressman, held the seat.

Bonapart’s former Justins Forest Drive address in east Charlotte fell under state Senate District 40 and Charlotte City Council District 5.

“It’s very puzzling that Mr. Bonapart, a week before the critical date, was affirming his address on Justins Forest Drive,” Grisham said in an interview Tuesday morning. “That was four and a half months after signing his new lease.”

The board also scrutinized how Bonapart receives his mail, all of which had been sent to a Post Office box — not Steele Creek or east Charlotte.

Nicholas Clift, one of two Democratic precinct chairs who filed the challenge on Dec. 30, said he “felt sort of sorry” for Bonapart.

Clift said he and Virginia Keogh, the other Democratic precinct chair, became suspicious about Bonapart’s actual residence once the perennial City Council candidate filed to run outside of east Charlotte.

Clift and Keogh said they spoke with a neighbor living near Bonapart’s new address who had never seen Bonapart at the Steele Creek property. They also recently drove by Bonapart’s former east Charlotte address, where they saw what they believed to be Bonapart’s car.

“My takeaway is that in Steele Creek and in the south part of Mecklenburg County, we really care about making sure that the rules are followed,” Clift said in an interview Monday night. “We didn’t see the proof — I don’t think the board did, either.”