The three members of the Dare County Board of Elections should be ashamed of themselves.
At a meeting on Wednesday afternoon, they had another chance — apparently a last chance — to make things right with early voting opportunities — and they refused. All three members of the board — two Republicans and a Democrat — refused to add any more hours or days to the schedule they had set the week before.
So the final schedule includes early morning hours at the board’s Manteo office only, early evening hours — until 6 p.m. — on most days at the satellite offices of Southern Shores, Kill Devil Hills, and Buxton, and only one Saturday with four and a half hours of voting and only in Manteo.
The Dare County Board of Elections, by the way, includes three members, Chairman Donna Elms and secretary Carol Warnecki — both Republicans — and Democrat Lynda Midgett.
The county boards are appointed by the state Board of Elections, whose five members are appointed by the governor, who is currently a Republican, thus the county boards are Republican controlled. However, no more than two members of a board may belong to the same political party, thus there is a token Democrat.
Two non-partisan groups, the League of Women Voters and Democracy NC, and the Dare County Democratic Party had been asking the Board of Elections all summer to include early morning, evening, and Saturday and Sunday hours to this year’s early voting schedule so that working people can have a chance to cast a ballot before Election Day, which this year is Tuesday, Nov. 8.
The statistics show that early voting, also known as one-stop voting, has become increasingly popular.
I guess I am old-fashioned, but I like going to my polling place on Election Day and chatting with the poll workers and my neighbors. However, I have heard more and more of my friends say they prefer early voting.
According to Democracy NC, 56 percent of North Carolinians who went to the polls in 2012 cast their ballots during the 17-day early voting period. But Dare County ranks 93 out of the 100 counties in the number of early voters, which voting advocates say indicates inconvenient hours and locations.
If you want to vote early, especially on Hatteras, it helps if you are retired or self-employed and can take time off whenever you want because early voting has been available at the Fessenden Center in Buxton only during the day, usually weekdays.
This year’s first schedule from the Republican-controlled county Board of Elections was especially short on opportunities to vote early since North Carolina’s new election law, the centerpiece of which was a required voter ID, also reduced early voting by a week. Republicans, who now control the state and the state and local boards of elections, think that mostly Democrats vote early.
The law was declared unconstitutional earlier this month by the U.S. Court of Appeals.
The court refused the state’s request for a stay, so the early voting schedules approved by the county boards had to be changed to reflect an extra week.
Shortly before the judge tossed the voter ID law, the Dare board had voted to keep early voting hours of Monday ? Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the required Saturday morning before Election Day.
At a meeting on Aug. 12, after the court decision, the Board of Elections agreed to change the hours and keep the early voting sites open until 6 p.m. — on most days.
However, there were still no early morning voting hours — before work or school — and there was still only one weekend day — a single Saturday from 8:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. in Manteo only. There would be no Saturday voting at the satellite sites and no Sunday hours, as had been requested.
The next week, on Aug. 17, Elections Director Michele Barnes said she had urged the board to expand the hours to include early mornings — however, only at the Manteo site. The board, she said, had approved the change by conference call.
Sandy Semans Ross, representing Democracy NC, notified the board — and its attorney — that the conference call meeting was illegal since the board had given no public notice of the meeting and there was no opportunity for the public to participate.
The board responded by setting a public meeting for Wednesday, Aug. 24.
Again, representatives of the League of Women Voters, Democracy NC and the Democratic Party asked the board to expand the hours, especially the weekend hours.
The League had already noted to the board that in past elections, Saturday was by far the most popular day for early voting.
The advocates for expanded hours have also noted that the state board has advised local boards to be prepared for a large voter turnout in this year’s Presidential election and that in past elections, lines have been very long at some precincts on Election Day.
Ross even presented the board with an alternative schedule that did not add any more hours to early voting, but changed the days in Manteo and all the satellite sites from Monday through Friday to Tuesday through Saturday.
The three members of the board refused to budge.
It might help you to understand their refusal — at least that of the two Republican members — to know that according to an arrticle published Aug. 16 in the Raleigh News & Observer, the North Carolina Republican Party encouraged Republican county election board members ?to make party line changes to early voting.?
The party?s executive director Dallas Woodhouse had sent an email, according to the newspaper, that recommended ways to restrict early voting — limit Sunday voting, provide fewer voting opportunities and don?t include sites at college campuses.
According to the article written by reporter Catherine Kozak for The Island Free Press, Wednesday’s meeting got a bit contentious at times.
Some advocates attending pointed out that the Wednesday meeting was also illegal since the board had not given the required 48 hours notice.
“It?s all illegal,? Dare County Democratic Party Chairman Fountain Odom shouted at the board after the vote.
Responding, Warnecki said that if the plan was not approved, the board would revert back to the original proposed schedule that offered fewer hours for early voting. She denied accusations from the audience that she was issuing a threat, or that the board was being ?dictatorial.?
In an interview after the meeting, Kozak wrote, Barnes and the board members defended not expanding weekend hours at any location beyond what the law required.
?We haven?t found that it?s been needed,? Warnecki said.
Elms said that it is only the representatives of the League of Women Voters and Democracy NC ? both nonpartisan groups — that have raised the issue as part of a statewide campaign. But she said ?it?s not a real problem? in the county.
?We?ve never had voters complain,? Elms said. ?They find times to vote.?
Warnecki also said that the board had not been influenced by Woodhouse’s email advising Republican board members how to limit early voting.
?If we had responded to that, we would have cut hours,? she said.
The board members all said that they represent voters of all political parties in an equal manner.
?We have always served this county as a non-partisan board,? said Midgett, a veteran member and former long-time director.
Maybe so. But it’s really difficult to understand what the big deal is.
Maybe no one has asked for more hours because they didn’t know they could. Ross has noted that many in the county probably think Raleigh sets the early voting hours.
Anyway, if the figures show early voting is popular, why not go with the flow?
Seems to me, it’s the mission of the Board of Elections to encourage voting in any way it can, and if voters, especially working people, want to vote early, why not allow them?
I find it curious that one Island Free Press Reader, T.A. Cain, who lives in Texas, a state known as a stronghold of the Republican Party, posted this comment on one of the articles about early voting:
“That seems excessively restrictive. Here in North Texas, early voting lasts 2 weeks, 8 a.m. – 5p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. Friday / Saturday.”
Another reader noted that the “Board of Elections should be measured on how many people vote with the goal of improving it every election.”
That’s a good, non-partisan idea.
The Board of Commissioners was also a disappointment during this early voting circus.
At their Aug. 15 meeting, the League of Women Voters and Democracy NC, asked the commissioners to support expanded early voting hours, especially in the early morning and on weekends. Sandy Semans Ross asked the Board of Commissioners to pass a resolution asking the Board of Elections to reconsider its early voting plan.
That’s all the resolution asked. It asked the commissioners just to ask the elections board to “reconsider.” After all, the commissioners can’t order them to change the schedule.
First, the commissioners unanimously voted to ask Elms to come to their Sept. 6 meeting to explain the early voting hours. Democratic Commissioner Warren Judge noted that the early voting schedule would be final by then, so it wouldn’t matter.
The commissioners voted 6-0 to invite Elms to their meeting anyway. Democratic Commissioner Allen Burrus was late to the meeting and wasn’t there for the vote.
Next, Judge made a motion that the board reconsider and pass the resolution. The five Republican commissioners declined to provide a “second” for the motion, and it died.
Burrus said he would have seconded the motion had he been there. But the motion would probably have gone down by a 5-2 party-line vote.
The current Board of Commissioners has had its share of party line votes.
And it goes without saying that the party in power gets its share of the goodies.
However, it’s just a shame — especially at a local level — when getting more people to vote becomes a partisan exercise.
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