Jillian McPherson-Edge, chair of the Columbus County Board of Elections, suggested during a meeting in May that the county reduce its number of early-voting sites from five to one ahead of the November election.
Two weeks later, Dallas Woodhouse, then a liaison with the North Carolina state auditor’s office, texted McPherson-Edge. Five sites were “overkill,” Woodhouse said, but the county needed more than one.
“As of now mark Columbus tentatively for 3 sites. Whiteville, Chadbourn and Tabor City,” Woodhouse wrote in the May 27 text. “With roughly 37,000 registered voters, 3 sites is plenty. I agree five is overkill, but we can’t go below 3. Those are the largest towns and geographically diverse. It matches some of the other key goals as well.”
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice obtained the message through a public records request to the Columbus County Board of Elections and shared it with the Border Belt Independent. One other person was also in the group text. An attorney for the coalition asked local Elections Director Ashley Collins if the other recipient was Kelley Horton, an assistant state auditor. Collins responded that McPherson-Edge did not know.
Woodhouse, a former director of the North Carolina Republican Party, resigned from his job as elections liaison in July amid questions about his influence on early-voting plans in counties across the state. He held the job for less than a year after the Republican-led General Assembly shifted control of the State Board of Elections from the governor to the office of state auditor’s office. As part of the change, counties’ election boards now have Republican majorities.
Hilary Harris Klein, an attorney for the Southern Coalition of Social Justice, told the Border Belt Independent she wondered what Woodhouse meant by matching “some of the other key goals” in Columbus County.
“Who knows what those goals are,” Harris Klein said. “They don’t seem to be the goals of serving the people in the county and ensuring that they have access to early voting.”
McPherson-Edge changed her proposal on June 8 to the three sites Woodhouse mentioned. But on June 29, she and the other two other Republican board members voted to open four sites for 13 days. The two Democrats on the board voted to open five sites, including in Fair Bluff and Riegelwood, for 14 days, including a Sunday.
In a statement to the Border Belt Independent, Woodhouse defended the process, calling the four-site plan “fair, balanced, reasonable and affordable.”
“I am proud of my work in Columbus county, to retain 4 early voting locations after a seriously considered proposal to go from 5 sites to 1, advanced,” Woodhouse said in an email. “This was cause for concern as my personal goal as well as the agency was to maintain access and even expand early voting access wherever possible. The other goals referenced in the message was simply geographic diversity across the county.”
The State Board of Elections will set the local schedule, as it does for all counties with boards that fail to reach unanimous decisions.
McPherson-Edge has said she suggested reducing the number of early-voting sites to save money. But local residents and representatives from the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and the North Carolina NAACP harshly criticized any reduction in sites, saying it would hurt voters’ ability to participate in the election.
McPherson-Edge did not return a request for comment for this story.
Columbus County had five early-voting sites ahead of the midterm election in 2022. The hours included one Saturday and one Sunday. The county had four sites in 2018, with no Sunday hours. It had six sites in 2014 but did not offer voting on Sunday, when “souls to the polls” events are popular among predominantly Black churches.
Disagreement in Scotland County
The state board will also set the early-voting schedule for Scotland County after local election officials split on whether to offer Sunday voting.
The three Republican members of the local board voted against Sunday voting, while the two Democrats favored a plan to offer Sunday voting on October 18, according to local Elections Director Dell Parker.
The state board is scheduled to consider plans for Scotland and Columbus counties on August 20.
Robeson and Bladen Schedules
Local election boards in Robeson and Bladen counties voted unanimously on early-voting sites for the November election. The state board is expected to approve the schedules Thursday.
The Bladen County elections board agreed to reduce the number of early-voting sites this year. The county will operate four sites, on Mondays through Saturdays from October 15-31. No Sunday voting will be available. In 2022, the county had five sites, with hours on one Sunday.
Bladen County Elections Director James Nance III said his office had hoped to open six sites this year. “We were looking at it not just financially but we were looking at it geographically too,” he said. “The county is so large.”
At a public meeting on June 9, a community member asked the Bladen County Board of Elections if state officials had encouraged members to adopt a certain early-voting schedule. Republican board chairman Larry Hammond said he had spoken to Woodhouse a few times but was not influenced to make changes.
“And I can assure you, it won’t occur,” Hammond said. “We know how this county operates, and it’s not up to other counties or other entities to influence the way that we operate. We’re trying to do this for the best of the people.”
Robeson County will have six early-voting sites this year, as it has during midterm elections since 2018. Sunday voting will be available for five hours on October 25.
Harris Klein said early-voting sites are particularly important because voters can register and vote on the same day.
“Why would we be lessening access to the ballot? Why wouldn’t we see access to the ballot being expanded?,” she told the Border Belt Independent. “It is reasonable for folks to be concerned that cuts to early voting hours and cuts to early voting sites is a signal from those in power that they don’t want as many people to be able to cast a ballot, that they are afraid of the accountability that our elections bring to government.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story erroneously misstated the first name of Ashley Collins.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a statement from Dallas Woodhouse.