The brazen closing of WCU’s voting site
The utter guile of this state’s GOP leaders to rig elections in their favor should cause a hue and cry from honorable, ordinary taxpaying citizens of all political stripes. But when it comes to partisanship, these are not ordinary times, which is an understatement of almost comical proportions.
Last week, the Jackson County Board of Elections voted along party lines to close the early voting site on the campus of Western Carolina University. The measure awaits approval by the state board, but the GOP majority in the recently re-jiggered election hierarchy in Raleigh no doubt has the rubber stamp inked and ready. Although the Cullowhee site closure was touted as a cost-savings measure, no one presented any credible information on those savings during the hearing. Others pointed out that other nearby sites will need additional staffing if Cullowhee is closed (meaning more expenditures).
According to WCU political science professor Chris Cooper, who spoke at the hearing, data shows that during the 2024 Primary Election, “the average age of the people who voted at the WCU campus was the youngest of any early voting site in the state” and that upon the site’s establishment in 2016, the percentage of votes from 18 to 25-year-olds initially tripled or quadrupled before settling into roughly double prior levels of around 3%. More than 76,000 people have voted at the site since its inception.
According to Democracy Docket, county boards of elections in Guilford, Harnett, Craven, Cumberland and Pitt counties have joined Jackson election supervisors by voting to close other early voting sites. In Guilford, that included sites on the campuses of N.C. A&T and at UNC Greensboro. In addition to campus voting sites, the GOP-led election boards are closing others that operate on Sunday, polls typically used by working class voters who can’t take a day off and churches who transport elderly and handicapped people to vote.
Guilford County elections board chair Eugene Lester III justified his board’s decision by arguing that voting is a privilege, not a right. Right, a privilege that we will now only make available to the privileged.
Taken together, these measures are obviously meant to raise barriers to participation for young and minority voters who tend to lean Democratic. The same conservatives pushing these measures often bemoan the lack of civic education in our schools and the lack of civic engagement among our youth. Ever wonder why some young people might get cynical about what their elected leaders are doing?
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If inhibiting voting wasn’t brazen enough, look what our state’s GOP leadership did back in October. The General Assembly voted to redraw state congressional maps at the behest of President Trump, providing one safer Republican district. North Carolina has 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives — and currently has 10 Republicans and four Democrats in its delegation. The redrawn map makes District I — currently represented by Democrat Rep. Donald Davis (D-NC, 4th) in the state’s northeastern corner — reliably Republican to secure an 11-3 majority.
Trump won the state in 2024 with 50.86 percent of the vote. So a state which many of us proudly proclaim as purple has been painted red when it comes to Congress, comfortably and brazenly gerrymandered by Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell), Sen. President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Guilford, Rockingham), and all of the GOP legislators (including all of our WNC reps) who giddily bend the knee to and kiss the ring of Donald Trump.
Why openly support partisan gerrymandering? Because they can. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 ruled that states can gerrymander for political advantage as long as the districts aren’t drawn based on race. A lawsuit filed by the NAACP to challenge the redrawn districts in North Carolina has already lost.
“As Democrat-run states like California do everything in their power to undermine President Trump’s administration and agenda, North Carolina Republicans went to work to protect the America First Agenda,” Berger wrote in a press release following the vote.
In a season where we talk often about values and honesty, let’s remember those elected and appointed leaders who would win at all costs rather than play fair, who wouldn’t dream of letting scruples get in the way of their politics.
(Scott McLeod can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
