Marriage license snafu reveals experience gap in Haywood register of deeds election
The retirement of longtime Haywood County Register of Deeds Sherri Rogers leaves an important — but overlooked — office looking for new leadership.
Haywood County government photo
The motive behind one Republican candidate’s bid for the open Haywood County Register of Deeds seat is proof she’s not qualified for the job, says her Republican Primary Election opponent.
“I feel like someone that does not know the law should not be running for a job just trying to get back at us as a vendetta because we would not issue a marriage license,” said Stacy Cutshaw Moore, one of two candidates running to replace the longtime incumbent Democratic incumbent, Sherri Rogers, who is retiring.
As no Democrats filed for the race, the winner of the March 3 Republican Primary Election between Moore and Canton resident Kristina Watson will assume leadership of one of county government’s most important — and overlooked — elected offices.
The dispute stems from Kristina’s claims that she and her husband Tracy John Watson were improperly denied a marriage license by the Haywood County Register of Deeds, an experience she says motivated her to run for the position now being vacated by Rogers after more than three decades working in the office and 16 years leading it.
“Their attitude towards us when we talked to them was very high and mighty, very, ‘We can do whatever we want because we’re a publicly elected office,’” Tracy said. “We don’t believe anybody should be treated that way.”
Kristina told The Smoky Mountain News Jan. 1, that she was born and raised in Hawaii and had never lived anywhere else before moving to Haywood County three years ago; however, voter registration records show the only votes she has ever cast in North Carolina were in Buncombe County in the 2022 and 2024 General Elections.
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Public records show Tracy voted in Buncombe County General Elections in 2018 and 2020 and has an unpaid property tax bill from 2022 that lists an Asheville address. Tracy subsequently purchased a house in Canton in May 2021 and voted in Haywood County in 2022 and 2024.
A Facebook profile for a “TJ Watson” of Canton says he’s been married to “ Kryssi” Watson since Sept. 2, 2024 — prior to the 2024 General Election, which raises serious questions about Kristina’s residency and her Buncombe County votes in 2022 and 2024.
Kristina said that she has an associate’s degree in psychology from the University of Oregon online. Her work experience includes plenty of clerical roles, but now she works as a recordkeeper for public safety communications in Buncombe County.
“I’m involved with the filing, safekeeping and releasing of records, and I handle the court side of records and documentation that are released to the courts,” she said.
When the Watsons came to the register of deeds in Haywood County seeking a marriage license, the office declined to issue one.
“Essentially what happened in that office is we were denied a marriage certificate because the office very much was just opposed to it for reasons we still don’t understand,” Tracy said.
Asked if they’d said or done anything that would lead the register’s office to believe they were ineligible for a marriage certificate, Tracy responded that his best guess was that they had offended someone in the office.
The Watsons said they left the office feeling singled out and dismissed, an interaction that they later characterized as unfair treatment by Rogers’ staff. The Watsons subsequently obtained a marriage license in Buncombe County with no issues, Kristina said, framing her experience in Haywood County as an example of how personal beliefs can influence access to government services — a concern Tracy says would not exist if the office were run differently.
Kristina Watson. File photo
“It’s the culture of the office, and that’s one of the reasons why we want to run is because we want to shift the culture of the office,” said Tracy, who also serves as Kristina’s campaign manager.
During Kristina’s interview, Tracy spoke frequently on Kristina’s behalf, often using the word “we” when describing plans and views for the office. When reminded that his name was not on the ballot, Tracy said he did not plan to be employed in the register’s office if his wife were to be elected.
Rogers, who has served as Haywood County Register of Deeds since 2009 and worked in the office in various capacities dating back to the mid-1980s, has rejected any suggestion that personal beliefs play a role in the office’s work. The office, she has said, is bound strictly by statute, and marriage licensing is governed by state law rather than personal discretion.
Moore, who has worked in the office for 12 years under Rogers and previously spent 17 years before that on the other side of the counter, pulling deeds as part of her work for a land surveyor, said she walked in on the tail end of the dispute and that Watson’s account reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how marriage law works in North Carolina.
“When you go to run for an office, you need to know about the office. You need to know what that office does, what it entails,” Moore said.
Under North Carolina law, marriage is created by consent and solemnization, not by the issuance of a license. A license is a mechanism for documenting the marriage, not a prerequisite for its existence. Once a couple has participated in a valid ceremony, the marriage has already occurred under state law.
Moore said that during the Watsons’ visit to the office, they mentioned solemnizing the marriage in a ceremony at some time in the past and that they were thus ineligible for a marriage certificate without taking additional legal steps first.
Registers of deeds are prohibited from issuing a marriage license to individuals who are already married, regardless of whether that marriage has been documented.
That distinction is laid out in detail in a comprehensive analysis of North Carolina marriage law authored by Janet Mason, a faculty member at the UNC School of Government who specializes in juvenile law, social services law and marriage law. In her article, Mason explains that while marriage licenses are commonly viewed as essential to marriage, North Carolina courts have consistently held that the absence or presence of a license is “of minimal consequence” in determining whether a valid marriage exists.
Mason notes that registers of deeds have no authority to retroactively issue marriage licenses once a ceremony has taken place. In fact, she writes, if applicants disclose that they have already participated in a marriage ceremony, a register of deeds must refuse to issue a license. Doing otherwise, the article explains, would contradict statutory requirements and create false public records.
In that context, Moore said, the Watsons were treated no differently than any other couple.
“When we hear that you’ve already had a ceremony, you’re already married,” she said. “We can’t issue a license. That is the law.”
Rogers, who was first appointed to the Register of Deeds position in 2009 and then repeatedly elected without opposition, said the marriage law confusion illustrated by Watson’s claim is not unusual. Over the years, she said, her office has routinely encountered couples who misunderstand the relationship between ceremonies and licenses.
The office’s role, Rogers reiterated, is not to interpret or bend the law, but to follow it precisely.
Buncombe County Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger, who’s been in office for 15 years, told The Smoky Mountain News Jan. 4 that he agrees with how Haywood County handled the situation, and that the Watsons’ failure to disclose their previous ceremony to his office likely violated the law.
“When you’re filling out a marriage license application you say under oath that the info you provided is true and correct to the best of your knowledge and belief,” Reisinger said. “The info they provided to my office would not have been true. But marriage law is murky in North Carolina, so it’s not something I’d pursue with law enforcement.”
The register of deeds office is responsible for maintaining Haywood County’s official public records including birth and death certificates, marriage licenses and military discharge records. Military discharge records, known as DD-214s, are the only documents in the office that are not public record, remaining sealed for 80 years.
Unbeknownst to many, the office plays a critical role in the county’s economy by performing various official functions related to real estate transfers. Rogers mentioned a substantial transaction that came into the office late on a recent Wednesday.
“It was very important to those people to get through the sale of those properties,” Rogers said. “I mean, there’s a lot of a lot of money that goes through this office as far as excise tax — a fee that’s charged on the transaction amount paid, $1 per $500.”
She also mentioned that if the office doesn’t perform its duties efficiently, real-world consequences follow — for even the smallest of transactions.
“Some individuals come here in a U-Haul with all their possessions, and it’s a Friday afternoon, and if something happens and I don’t get their deed recorded, they don’t get the keys to their new home,” said Rogers. “I mean, there’s so many little things that you don’t think about that we have to do here. We have to make sure everything — everything — flows in this office.”
Rogers began working in the office in 1985 as an intern through a paralegal program at Southwestern Community College. She became a deputy register of deeds in 1986 and later served as assistant register before leaving the office for several years. She returned to the office in 2009, when she was appointed by the county Democratic Party to fill a vacancy.
The Haywood register’s office has an annual budget of roughly $1.5 million, Rogers said, though the exact figure fluctuates year to year. In addition to providing essential public services, the office pays for itself and generates a modest amount of revenue for the county’s general fund.
The office operates with a staff of four full-time employees in addition to the register. Rogers said it takes years to fully train a new employee, given the complexity of real estate law, indexing standards and statutory requirements.
Staff members regularly attend district workshops and School of Government training sessions to stay current on changes in the law — the most recent of which allows county registers of deeds to issue certified adoptive birth certificates. Under the new law, adopted individuals and certain family members can obtain certified copies of their adoptive birth certificates in the county where they were born. Previously, adoptees could request these records only through the North Carolina Office of Vital Records in Raleigh.
Over nearly four decades, Rogers said, the office has undergone a dramatic transformation, particularly in its use of technology.
Haywood County was among the first in North Carolina to digitize its grantor and grantee indexes, a process that began in the mid-1980s. Today, nearly all documents are recorded electronically, and Rogers estimates that roughly 90% of filings come into the office through electronic filing systems.
Kristina, however, argued that the office could do more to expand online services and reduce the need for in-person visits.
Rogers rejected that claim, saying virtually every function that can legally be handled online already is.
“There is nothing that a register’s office can do that we don’t have in this office,” Rogers said. “We do everything and anything that is possible electronically.”
Rogers said attorneys and realtors from other counties frequently comment on the efficiency of the Haywood County office and sometimes travel specifically to Haywood to do business because of how quickly and smoothly transactions are processed.
Moore believes her education, her local roots and her experience working with Rogers have prepared her to step into the role without a learning curve. A Haywood County native, Moore graduated from Tuscola High School and earned two associate’s degrees from Haywood Community College — one in general education, one in office administration.
All told, Moore said her decades of work with and in the office prepare her to recognize problems that might not be obvious to someone unfamiliar with the system, including a fraudulent deed she helped stop from being recorded after she noticed irregularities, including a falsified notary seal. The grantor named on the deed, she said, was deceased.
Had the document been recorded, it could have resulted in an illegal property transfer, exposing the office and possibly the individual working the counter to legal liability. In such circumstances, the victim would have to report the fraud to law enforcement, hire a real estate attorney, file a civil action to quiet title and then prove the deed is fraudulent. The process can take months or years, and initial costs fall on the victim.
Stacy Cutshaw Moore. File photo
Moore said that kind of vigilance is part of the job, one that extends beyond the workday.
“Most people, when they go home or if they have a day off, they don’t think about work,” Moore said. “If I take a day off, I’m like, ‘Are they busy?’”
Kristina has never worked in a register of deeds office but emphasized her background in customer service and administrative work, saying those skills would translate to managing the office and interacting with the public.
Moore said the register’s job is not one that can be approached casually or treated as a symbolic position.
“I would like to know, does [Kristina] know the difference between the documents? Does she realize that every document that we record has to be indexed? Does she realize that there’s indexing standards that we have to follow? I mean, it’s not just walking in here and sitting back and issuing marriage licenses and maybe birth certificates for people,” Moore said. “There’s a lot more that people don’t realize that we do in here.”
Were Kristina Watson to win the election, Moore said she would leave the office.
“I love my job. I love working here,” Moore said. “I’m very interested in everything we do in here, from the birth certificates to the deeds. And it’s not just a job for me. It’s my life. It’s what I enjoy.”
