CARY - State election officials ended an investigation into a Cary political pundit who was accused of dirty tricks related to a 2009 town election.

The state Board of Elections, which had been investigating Don Hyatt for alleged campaign finance violations, ruled last week that Hyatt did not break election laws when he created a mock Web site mimicking that of a rival political action committee.

Hyatt sent e-mails and created a Web site to mock DavisandHighHouse.org, a political action committee that supported District A challenger Lori Bush. Bush lost to Councilwoman Jennifer Robinson, whom Hyatt supported, in a close November runoff.

The investigation forced him to resign from the board of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, a nonprofit that encourages voter participation and political fair play.

Hyatt's actions weren't governed by the state's campaign finance laws, and therefore the state had no authority to penalize him, said Kim Strach, deputy director of the State Board of elections. "It's as I expected," Hyatt said Friday. "It's what I expected from the beginning. People found out who I was, and that was pretty much it."

Hyatt's mock Web site - DavisandHighHouse.com -mirrored that of slow-growth group DavisandHighHouse.org.

His cropped up days before the runoff. The spoof took aim at the original group's members, subtly criticizing them for opposing a controversial development proposed for the intersection of Davis Drive and High House Road.

Last year, Hyatt denied a role in the mock site. But in January, he admitted he created the dot-com Web site and authored the e-mails.

The state's decision disappointed Vickie Maxwell, treasurer of DavisandHighHouse.org, who filed the complaint. "I worry about future elections and the impact people like this can have on them," she said.

The case has prompted clean elections advocates, including those at the N.C. Center for Voter Education, to push for election laws that govern cyberspace.

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