Overview:
• Cumberland County Republicans preferred seven sites, while Democrats wanted eight locations, including Spring Lake.
• The Republicans said too few voters use the Spring Lake location to make it worth the cost to operate it.
• ‘Our residents deserved better than what they got today,’ said Spring Lake Mayor Kia Anthony.
Cumberland County will have seven early voting locations ahead of the November 3 election, the N.C. State Board of Elections decided on Thursday. None of them will be in Spring Lake.
The state election board’s decision followed disagreement between the five-member Cumberland County Board of Elections over early voting sites. The three Republicans wanted seven locations; the two Democrats wanted eight, with one of them in Spring Lake.
Spring Lake Mayor Kia Anthony criticized the decision to exclude her town from early voting this fall. “Our residents deserved better than what they got today,” she said via text message on Thursday.
In-person early voting for the midterm election will run October 15–31. Voters may also vote early by mail starting in early September.
Too Few Voters for the Cost?
Spring Lake is a town of 11,252 as of 2025, according to the U.S. census, surrounded by Fort Bragg and Carver’s Creek State Park in Cumberland County’s northwest corner. It has about 5,700 registered voters.
Under state law, when a county Board of Elections fails to reach a unanimous decision on early voting days, hours, and locations, the state Board of Elections makes the decision. This summer, the Cumberland County Board of Elections was among 20 of the state’s 100 county boards that failed to reach unanimous decisions. The state board took them up on Thursday.
Linda Devore, the Republican chair of the county elections board, and Democratic board member Irene Grimes each made their case to the state board.
Devore said too few voters use the Spring Lake early voting site to make it worth the $35,000 expense of operating the site. In 2022 and 2024, early voting was conducted in the Spring Lake Multipurpose Community Center on Ruth Street.
In 2022, the most-recent midterm election, about 45,000 Cumberland County voters used in-person early voting, Devore said. “Of those who voted early—the 45,000—only 1,200, or 2.5% of those, voted at the Spring Lake site.”
It cost the county about $30 per ballot in Spring Lake, Devore said, versus about $4 per ballot for the rest of the voting sites.
Grimes countered that county elections staff set up a contingency fund to cover the cost of eight voting sites. Spring Lake’s early voting numbers have been low, she argued, because it hasn’t been used consistently enough or long enough for voters to develop a habit of going there.
“The numbers will not be exorbitant or something to write home about,” Grimes said. “However, Spring Lake is relatively isolated in the northern part of our county. The voters up there deserve a site to vote.”
Among the other seven early voting sites in Cumberland County, the nearest one to Spring Lake will be Smith Recreation Center on Slater Avenue by Fayetteville State University. It’s about a 15-minute, 9-mile drive along Murchison Road from the middle of Spring Lake.
The state Board of Elections voted 3-2 in favor of the Republican, seven-site plan for Cumberland County. Republicans Francis X. De Luca, Stacy “Four” Eggers IV, and Angela Hawkins voted for Devore’s plan. Democrats Jeff Carmon and Siobhan O’Duffy Millen voted against it.
Anthony thanked Grimes for bringing Spring Lake’s case to the state board meeting in Raleigh.
“She laid out a clear, fact-based case for why our community needs an early voting site,” the mayor said. “What is frustrating is that the need was clear. We have residents who depend on having that access close to home, and today the majority of the State Board decided that was not enough.”
Sunday Voting in Cumberland on October 18
Through much of Thursday’s 9 hour, 33 minute meeting, Democrats and Republicans argued over whether early voting should be offered on Sundays. The Republican majority on the state board for the most part rejected Democratic calls for Sunday voting hours, N.C. Newsline reported.
But Cumberland County will have a day of Sunday voting. Cumberland County’s Republicans and Democrats agreed in June to offer it on October 18. The state board’s decision made no change to that.
Cumberland County Early Voting Times, Places
In Cumberland County, early in-person voting runs October 15 through October 31, but not on Sunday, October 25.
Weekday hours will be 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Saturday hours will be 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday voting will be 2–5 p.m. on October 18.
The early voting sites are:
- Cliffdale Recreation Center, 6404 Cliffdale Road, Fayetteville.
- East Regional Library, 4809 Clinton Road, Fayetteville.
- Smith Recreation Center, 1520 Slater Ave., Fayetteville.
- Kiwanis Recreation Center, 352 Devers St., Fayetteville.
- J.D. Pone Recreation Center, 2964 School Road, Hope Mills.
- Stoney Point Recreation Center, 7411 Rockfish Road, Fayetteville.
- College Lakes Recreation Center, 4945 Rosehill Road, Fayetteville.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
