Daily Update - March 30, 2026

How Did a Convicted Sex Offender Vote Twice in North Carolina?

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Digging into how convicted felon and registered sex offender James Osborne managed to vote in multiple North Carolina elections despite being legally barred from the ballot. We connect his role in the recent school board primary scandal, expose failures in county election oversight, and explain why North Carolina’s outdated verification system from 1998 must be urgently modernized.

How in the world was a convicted criminal allowed to vote?

This is the Wilmington Standard Daily Update for Monday March 30 2026.

Over the weekend, the FBI arrested James Osborne for illegally voting in multiple elections here in North Carolina. Mr. Osborne is a convicted felon, a registered sex offender, and is under supervised release serving out his probation until January of 2038. Under North Carolina law, he is prohibited from voting. Nevertheless, under oath – the same oath that every voter has to attest to before voting – he stated he was eligible to participate in our elections.

Mr. Osborne came to the public eye because he is the roommate of Rick Southerland. Mr. Southerland was one of the winners of the Democrat primary for the Board of Education who neglected to tell his constituents that his roommate was in trouble with the law over offenses against children. Mr. Southerland wisely withdrew from the race, but only after his roommate’s history was made public – including Mr. Osborne’s statement he had participated in the primary and other elections.

For some incredible reason a convicted sex-offender who has violated probation twice also managed to vote in two separate elections. He pulled the wool over the eyes of the election board in Brunswick county in 2024, and did the same again after moving to New Hanover for the 2025 primaries.

North Carolina is currently using an election verification system that dates back to 1998. State Auditor Dave Boliek has started the process to update our system, and the state legislature has set aside $15 million dollars to make that happen. But because it is government, the update will probably take several years. Meanwhile, election officials will need to work with a system that is written in programming languages that are no longer supported, is difficult to manage and update, and still relies in many case on manual forms to get data.

Clearly, since people like Mr. Osborne twice offset the ballot of those who are legally able to vote, we need to make those changes quicker.

For the Wilmington Standard, I’m Reuel Sample. Thanks for listening.

Reuel Sample is the Editor-in-Chief of The Wilmington Standard. A graduate of Grove City College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he has served as both a Presbyterian Pastor and a Navy Chaplain. He is the product of a classical liberal arts education combined with real world experience in politics and business and conservative Christian worldview firmly rooted in the Reformed tradition. He is the host of several podcasts including the NHC GOP Podcast, the Pastor's Voice, and co-hosts the Nikki and Reuel Podcast Experience. An avid sailor, he has sailed around the world as a youth and to the Azores as a teen as well as extensive trips up and down the east coast of the United States. He is honored to be married to his wife Pam and makes his home in Wilmington, NC.