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Leslie ("Les") Merritt is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of North Carolina and the current North Carolina State Auditor , a position to which he was Elected In 2004 . Merritt was born and raised in rural Sampson County . He and his wife now live in the eastern Wake County town of Zebulon . After earning degrees in economics and accounting from North Carolina State University and becoming a Certified Public Accountant , Merritt served as the president of the Zebulon Lions and Rotary clubs, and of the Zebulon Elementary School PTA . Merritt was elected to the Wake County Board of Commissioners in 1994 , a post he held until 1998 . Professionally, he served as president of Merritt, Petway, Mills & Hockaday, an accounting & auditing firm with offices in Zebulon and Raleigh , prior to being elected State Auditor. In 2000 , he challenged incumbent Democratic State Auditor Ralph Campbell , and was narrowly defeated. In a 2004 rematch against Campbell, Merritt narrowly defeated the three-term incumbent, campaigning on a platform of fiscal conservatism. During his campaign, Merritt touted his record on the Wake County Board of Commissioners. He sits as one of only three Republicans on the majority Democratic North Carolina Council Of State . In June 2007, the N.C. Democratic Party and other liberal interest groups attacked Merritt because of an attempt to block a Senate bill that would have authorized same day registration. According to the Democratic Party's characterizations, Merritt based his concern on a report his office produced, which he quickly withdrew due to substantial inaccuracies. The Democrats also state that Merritt alleged widespread irregularities including "24,821 invalid driver's license numbers in the voter registration database, 380 people who appear to have voted after their dates of death and others who were under age 18 when they voted." Upon examination, Merritt was unable to provide any instance of actual voting fraud and failed to mention reasonable explanations for the data discrepancies. Further, the Democratic Party's characterizations of the situation imply that Merritt staffer Chris Mears, former political director for the North Carolina Republican Party, was responsible for derailing the same day registration bill. Merritt recently announced his plans to seek re-election in 2008. EXTERNAL LINK
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