Overview:
• There are two competing proposals to open two sites in Fayetteville
• One proposal is the eastern side Board of Elections office plus the western side Cliffdale Recreation Center
• The other is the Kiwanis Recreation Center plus the Cliffdale Rec Center
• Now the State Board of Elections will decide, and it could choose something else entirely
For the fourth time this summer, the Cumberland County Board of Elections has failed to decide where to open early voting sites for November’s municipal elections.
The choice of locations and their operating hours now rests with the North Carolina State Board of Elections in Raleigh.
All five of Cumberland County’s election board members voted this month to open two early voting sites for the general election, which ends Nov. 4. The early voting is to run from Oct. 16 to Nov. 1.
All five board members voted to put one of the early voting sites at Cliffdale Recreation Center in western Fayetteville. This has been a popular polling place for early voting in past elections, and the Fayetteville City Council requested it this year.
The point of dispute among the elections board members: Where to put the other early voting site?
Elections office vs. Kiwanis
The two Democrats on Aug. 5 voted to put the other site at the Board of Elections office on Fountainhead Lane. This is near downtown on Fayetteville’s eastern half. The three Republican board members voted against this.
The three Republicans voted on Aug. 12 to put it at the Kiwanis Recreation Center off Fort Bragg Road, next to Fayetteville Technical Community College. This is more centrally located, but still toward Fayetteville’s eastern side. The two Democrats voted against this.
State law says the vote among the board’s three Republicans and two Democrats must be unanimous, so the 3-2 vote was insufficient to approve the Kiwanis location.
With the lack of a unanimous decision on early voting locations, Cumberland County’s board is sending the matter to the North Carolina State Board of Elections to decide, county board Chair Linda Devore said. Both the Democratic proposal and Republican proposal are being sent.
The county board had also attempted on June 10 and June 23 to pick early voting sites and hours. With 4-1 votes, those plans failed to reach the unanimous decisions required to pass. These attempts included the Kiwanis-Cliffdale proposal, Devore said.
Size? Confusion?
In past years, the county has used both the Kiwanis Recreation Center and the Board of Elections office for early voting.
In even-numbered years, when voter turnout is high, the board has used the Kiwanis Rec Center for early voting because it has more room than the elections office, Devore said.
In odd-numbered municipal election years, when voter turnout is generally low, the Board of Elections has used the elections office, she said.
Devore, who is one of the Republicans, argued for the switching to the Kiwanis Rec Center this year because the large number of candidates for Fayetteville mayor and city council seats this year — 10 are running for mayor, and 26 for city council — suggests to her there will be a higher voter turnout than in the past.
“The number of candidates is, I think, what our consideration needs to be,” Devore said. “Because that will affect the number of voters that we’re trying to accommodate.”
Board member Irene Grimes, a Democrat, argued that use of the Kiwanis site for the general election could create confusion for Fayetteville voters. This is because early voting for Fayetteville’s City Council primaries, which runs Sept. 18 to Oct. 4 ahead of the Oct. 7 election day, will be at the elections office. (The Cliffdale site won’t be open during the primaries.)
“So now you will have voters that will show up at the Board of Elections to do their primary voting,” Grimes said. “And then three weeks later, a month later, they go to vote in the November election, and suddenly there’s a sign on the door says, ‘Oh go somewhere else.’”
The state board meets on Aug. 27 to take up early voting location disputes from across the state, Devore said. The state board can choose hours and locations different from what the county board has considered, Elections Director Angie Amaro said.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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