To the Editor:

WLOS-TV provided interesting news with reports of influence by the N.C. State Auditor’s office (David Boliek) on Jackson County’s Board of Elections (BOE) choice for the Cullowhee early voting site.

Old pictures of the Hinds Center were irrelevant ,as that early voting site was eliminated in the 2026 primary as low voter turnout was within the Parks and Rec capabilities. The 2026 General Election is projected to turn out large numbers of Cullowhee voters, and earlier BOE discussions convinced four of the five county board members that Parks and Rec lacked sufficient space for a General Election and that the Health and Human Services facility was the only government-owned location within Cullowhee that met all the electoral and logistic requirements, especially voter volumes, for the November election.

The HHS location was also identified as the preferred site by the BOE staff responsible for staffing and operating the voting location, and the location also comes fully supported by the WCU administration.

Not reported or understood by Mr. Boliek is that Cullowhee is a zip code and not a town, there is no government infrastructure, and our main street would be Little Savannah Road. That road includes almost every business in Cullowhee, including the Cullowhee service station/mini mart, the bank, the post office, a restaurant, extensive student housing, a recycle center, the Cullowhee Fire House, the county airport and yes, the Health and Human Services building located on the WCU Millennial campus. HHS contains multiple medical clinics, 10,000 Jackson County residents received their Covid shots there and it was always planned as a community space.

Cullowhee Parks and Rec visitors have significantly increased with the addition of a state-of-the-art swimming pool added without extra parking. The space for early voting shares three small, connected meeting rooms with exterior windows, one used as the parks and rec staff breakroom, and all open into a small interior hallway. Adding 7,000 voters to the regular patrons of the Rec Dept for several weeks is significant, and when early voting ends the BOE staff must break down and then reinstall all the voting equipment from the early voting space into the main gym (closed for voting) for Election Day.

HHS is a modern building, and the room available for voters is large, windowless, secure, has reserved parking and a large lobby. A beautiful and welcoming building. How uplifting it would be to vote in this most adequate building as we recognize 250 years of our country.

Finally, it is interesting to note that people in Raleigh are making a decision that is personal to our county. County voters serve as the election poll workers, spend many hours in election training and preparation, and provide the expert knowledge to setup and administer Jackson County elections with integrity. Most important, please know that our Jackson County voters, as taxpayers, pay the entire expense of every county election with no financial support from Mr. Boliek’s office — nothing.

Myrtle Schrader
Cullowhee