North Carolina – The big names of the Republican Party were at the NC GOP Convention this month – DeSantis, Pence, and, of course, the front runner, Donald Trump, spoke at the event with the delegates to the convention and media, hearing what the candidates told the party faithful.
Questions Surrounding Voting for State Party Positions
However, what might be more interesting is what’s not being heard. Not everyone at the convention was happy with the way voting for state party positions was conducted, or more specifically, by what method.
Media Exclusion from Business Meeting
The Tribune had a reporter at the convention, but the media was not allowed to stay for the party’s business meeting. “I was only allowed in the speeches and the vendor area,” said Christine Robinson, a freelance reporter for the Tribune. The conference is apparently where things got interesting, according to members of the GOP who were there and are now speaking out.
Infighting and Allegations over Voting Method
The Tribune has learned of infighting in the party over the use of an electronic application called CardinalGPS used to cast votes by delegates during the convention.
According to Stephen Porter, a professor in the College of Education at North Carolina State University and a conservative Republican, claims “the managing director of CardinalGPS is Amy Mulligan, and her mother Karyn Mulligan was running for the vice chair position in the election (some have reported that Amy Mulligan now owns CardinalGPS),” in a post on his blog.
Allegations and Request for Source Codes
Porter is not the only one making allegations. John Kane, who was running for the NC GOP Chairmanship, posted a video at Rumble also asking for several items from the winner of the state party chairmanship, Michael Whatley. Among the list of items Kane wants is the source codes that were used during the voting at the convention.
Dissolved Corporation and Payment Questions
The matter gets stranger. In a June 15, 2023, post by Brant Clifton on the dailyhaymaker.com, a conservative blog page, in his post “Even MORE NCGOP voting app questions,” Clifton states, “Initially, the only entity named on the app’s landing page was Relyus, a Fayetteville-area printing company which has been the NCGOP’s largest subcontractor. According to records, Relyus did about $3.4 million in business with the NCGOP from 2020–2022.”
However, he goes on to state, “About the time of that discussion, the voting app’s landing page was changed” to include “Powered by CardinalGPS Technology.” Clifton also asserts that CardinalGPS had been dissolved by the time of the GOP State Convention this month, a fact confirmed by the Tribune.
Clifton then asks in his post, “So, who got paid to develop and manage this application for the convention? How much did the party pay for this technology? If it is no longer a registered corporation, the payment had to be made out to a person d/b/a ‘CardinalGPS.’ Who was that person?”
Delegates’ Credentialed Voting Issues
Some delegates never got credentialed to vote.
The Tribune also spoke with Bill Robinson, a regular freelance contributor to Newsmax.com, and a conservative Republican living in Asheville, who said he was supposed to have been a credentialed delegate to the convention.
Robinson said that after he got his press credential, he went to get his delegate credential. “I
made the mistake of wearing my press credential,” he said. That’s when he started getting a hard time. He was sent to another man who said, “‘I’ll check on it later,’ and I said, ‘Wait a minute, we’re voting this afternoon,'” Robinson told the Tribune.
The man told him to come back at about 1:30 pm. At which time, Robinson did, only to be told to come back at 1:45 pm, then 3 pm, while the voting was supposed to start at 2 pm. He said about 100 other people were also there trying to get credentialed to vote.
“I thought I smelled a rat,” said Robinson, who decided to ask some of the people waiting to be credentialed who they were supporting for the state party chairman. He said the ones he asked were supporting John Kane, the opponent of the current chairman, Michael Whatley. Meanwhile, the man who had told him to come back had gone off and never came back. Robinson said he was kicked out because he was never credentialed as a delegate. Robinson, a longtime politically active person, said he’d never seen anything like it.
Unanswered Questions and Lack of Response
The Tribune put questions to the NC GOP regarding CardinalGPS and the voting process, but as of press time, no reply had been received.