The push comes after it was revealed that Don Hyatt, a board member of a nonprofit that encourages voter participation and political fair play, was the subject of an investigation by state election officials.

Hyatt stepped down from the board of the N.C. Center for Voter Education on Tuesday after admitting to The Cary News that he was the author of potentially misleading e-mails that were intended to boost a candidate he supported in a Cary Town Council election.

Hyatt's e-mails supported the winner, Jennifer Robinson, in the District A election, the Triangle's closest 2009 political race.

Hyatt also said he created a bogus Web site - DavisandHighhouse.com. The Web site mimicked DavisandHighhouse.org, which was created by a political action committee that supported Town Council challenger Lori Bush in the fall contests.

Hyatt's parody of the dot-org rendition led to the investigation by the N.C. State Board of Elections.

DavisandHighHouse.org treasurer Vickie Maxwell filed a complaint with the state board, claiming that on the day before the election, a misleading e-mail from Hyatt's knockoff was sent to voters that made it appear as if DavisandHighHouse.org was endorsing Robinson.

The board does not regulate Web sites or e-mails, leaving the state with little room to take action against Hyatt.

Some elections advocates - including those at the N.C. Center for Voter Education - said the loophole needs to be fixed.

"This is the next frontier of political campaigns," said Damon Circosta, the center's executive director. "Twenty-first century elections need 21st century regulations."

House Rep. Grier Martin, who sits on the Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform committee, said new rules would need to focus on tracking the flow of money without infringing on free speech.

"We have to be careful we don't stifle anyone's right to political speech," he said. "This is no different from mailing a campaign flyer, though, and we want that money to be accounted for."

An admission

Hyatt, a software development manager at IBM, previously denied playing any role in e-mails or the bogus site.

Because of the way the mocking Web site was registered, it wasn't immediately clear who had created it. Speculation ensued.

Hyatt came forward Tuesday after reporters filed a public-records request correspondence between the N.C. State Board of Elections and a company that sells Internet domain names.

Hyatt had been notified about the request by state investigators.

"I'm the one that registered the site, and I'm the one that sent out a few e-mails to tweak the opposition," Hyatt, 50, said in an interview. "I've had no indication or communication from the Board of Elections that there were, in fact, any campaign finance laws broken or anything like that.

"But it is going to come back with my name on it."

By the end of the day, Hyatt, who is editor of carypolitics.org, had stepped down from the board of the N.C. Center for Voter Education. The organization creates voter guides and encourages "good government" practices like responsible public financing.

State elections officials were reluctant to divulge Hyatt's name because the investigation, though finished, is still under review.

Adam Ragan, a compliance specialist with the elections board, confirmed later that Hyatt was the subject of the investigation, but said it was still unclear whether any election laws were broken.

Ragan said the elections board would have no jurisdiction over the content of any site.

"There's probably not a lot we will do," Ragan said.

Maxwell, who filed the complaint, hopes this case will shed light on this form of political gamesmanship.

"It hurt Lori Bush a lot," she said. "And is this going to be the future of campaigns? That you can hide and do dirty campaigning? It definitely needs to be changed."

The cyber scuffle showed how scrappy Cary's election season became.

Close race

Robinson came just shy of beating Bush outright in the Oct. 6 general election, claiming 49.97 percent of the vote. But she won in the November runoff by a wider margin.

Maxwell's group was formed to protest development at Davis Drive and High House Road and takes a slow-growth stance in local politics.

It started backing political candidates and is credited with organizing voters to help Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht unseat former Mayor Ernie McAlister in 2007.

A founder of the group then took aim at Robinson.

In September, Van W. Kloempken, a founder of DavisandHighHouse.org, complained to election officials, saying that Robinson had manipulated campaign-finance reports to delay disclosure of developers' contributions until after her last election in 2005.

That investigation was ended without any action by state investigators.

Hyatt's fake Web site closely resembles the home page of the DavisandHighhouse.org site, but claimed its mission was to "preserve Cary as one of the best places to live, with the lowest tax rate of any town in the Southeast - by exposing the NIMBYs for what they are."

NIMBY is an acronym for "not in my backyard."

Web-savvy pundit

Hyatt ran for Town Council for the District D seat in 1999 and at-large in 2001.

Although he lost both times, Hyatt stayed involved in civic affairs, sitting on the town's planning and zoning board for several years.

He has also been the editor of carypolitics.org, an online forum for local politics, since February 2002.

He said he created DavisandHighHouse.com because he didn't want a small group of people to swing an election.

"They were getting a lot of press as a big grassroots organization that was driving politics in western Cary, and that was simply not true," he said. "A couple dozen people ... basically just didn't want this development in their neck of the woods.

"Voters don't know any better. They had no idea, no way to know that it was really only a handful of people."

'I did it anyway'

Hyatt said he thought the endeavor was legal because he didn't raise money and spent under $100 - the kinds of things that might keep one outside the boundaries of campaign finance rules.

"The Web site itself, I don't consider unethical," he said. "Sending out the e-mail was probably a little unethical. ... But I did it anyway."

He added: "I'm not happy that I got caught. On the other hand, I think it does serve to point out some interesting holes in the system.

"There's really no control at all over social networking, viral e-mails, there's little that can be done and I think they are changing the face of politics."

Bush said she was surprised to learn Hyatt was behind the site.

"He is the public face of carypolitics.org, which has a reputation of being a great place to have meaningful conversation about the town," Bush said. "I'm disappointed."

Robinson said she didn't visit Hyatt's site until several weeks after the election.

"I thought it was humorous, and I didn't think it influenced the election," Robinson said.

Robinson is a critic of DavisandHighHouse.org, which she says often misleads voters with inaccurate information on its Web site.

"There are people at Davis and High House who are upset they got one-upped," Robinson said.

"This kind of thing happens in politics," she added. "If you dish it out, you better be able to take it."