Around 100 people filled the Columbus County Board of Elections office Monday to descry a proposal to cut underperforming early polling locations.
The board had briefly discussed cutting out all early voting sites except the Board of Elections office in Whiteville, but Chair Jillian McPherson Edge said that proposal was never seriously considered. Instead, the board is considering closing Ransom and Fair Bluff, while keeping Chadbourn and Tabor City.
The primary concern, McPherson-Edge said, is “good stewardship of tax dollars.”
“This board’s purpose is to ensure everyone who has the legal right to vote casts a ballot,” she said before the meeting. “But we also have to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars.”
No precincts will be closed for Election Day, McPherson-Edge said, only for early voting. Early voting will also continue for the mandated 14 days, and mail-in absentees will not be affected in any way.
The two polling places being eyed for cuts also charge the county $100 to rent the facilities.
During Monday’s public comment section of the meeting, multiple speakers criticized the move as an attempt to prevent poor and minority people from casting a ballot. McPherson-Edge asked the speakers to remain respectful of the board in their comments.
Former County Commissioner Amon McKenzie pointed out that the county dealt with the problem of high-cost polls before, and generally kept the polling places open rather than inconvenience voters.
Viola Jones said bluntly that the county’s size precludes having only one early polling place. She said voters would not bother to cast a vote if they faced long lines after driving across the county.
She said she has family in Riegelwood, and early voting at the Ransom Center is their only opportunity to cast a ballot.
“I know what it feels like to have to get from Point A to Point B,” she said, “and Whiteville will not work. You expect people to come from the farthest remote areas of the county.
“I can only speak for myself, but I have a budget. Everyone in this room does too, and this would be a big inconvenience. Everybody doesn’t have wheels to get here.
“If you’re going to go to one or two sites, I’m going to call it voter suppression.”
Moneisha Brooks-Jones, Democrat party chair, said she would urge the board to keep all five sites.
“If you shut down four of the five, or even three of the five, you will not have adequate coverage for the county.” She said 90 percent of the early voters use the other four sites, and adding those to Whiteville would be overwhelming.
Shutting down any of those sites would be a “slap in the face” to all citizens, she said.
“You said it cost $40 for a vote in Fair Bluff,” she said. I don’t care if it cost $700 of my tax dollars for every vote. The budget has already been approved by the county.”
“I say this with all the love in my heart,” Brooks-Jones said, speaking to McPherson-Edge, “don’t be the GOP’s Sarah Palin. They put a pretty face before folks, and they let her stand up there and fail miserably. They made her look silly. They were hand feeding her what to say. You sit in the seat of power. Use it for the people of Columbus County.”
Gloria Smith, who previously served as a vice chair of the Democrat party, said she was concerned that longer lines of “200 people” who would be “wrapped around the board of elections building” would make it too hard for working people to cast a vote. Her primary concern was that staff at the hospital might not be able to vote.” She said workers in Wilmington would not have time to get to Whiteville in time to vote, if the Ransom Center was closed.
“Think of those people who have been working a 12-hour shift, then they have to stand in line for an hour to vote,” she said.
“Columbus County is a rural county. Very limited transportation. A lot of people are elderly and disabled. Even if you have curbside, there aren’t enough workers.”
Deborah McNeil of the N.C. NAACP drove three hours to speak at the meeting. She said that since most of the votes cast in the 2024 presidential elections happened during early voting, the county should expand early voting sites, not remove any.
“Why force the voters to change?” she said. “Why cut the weekend hours?”
Democrat party leader Frankin Thurman said that the board was “morally wrong” for considering closing any early voting sites.
“I sat on the board for nine years, and we never had nothing like this.”
Hilary Harris Klein, Senior Counsel for Voting Rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, also spoke during the meeting. In a statement after the meeting, Klein said the board should not consider closing any sites.
“The proposal to close any early voting sites is concerning, especially given the County Government has already agreed to fund all five, and the County has offered five voting sites in the last two general elections,” she said. “Voters are expecting these options.”
She was especially critical of the suggestion to close the Ransom Center early poll.
“The proposal to close the Ransom Event Center in the eastern part of the county is particularly shocking,” she said, “given its consistent use by thousands of voters in the 2022 and 2024 general elections and the fact that many voters would have to travel an additional hour round trip to the board of elections office, at least, if it is closed.
“This site is also disproportionately utilized by Black and African American voters. Given who showed up in overwhelming opposition to the closure of any voting site last night,” she said, “closing Ransom is a clear signal that the Black voting community is being ignored.”
County Commissioner Barbara Featherson said she was concerned with access to senior citizens.
“I want you to consider the weather,” she said. “Columbus county is basically a retirement community. People can’t get out. They have family members driving them. The mail system is slower than before.
“We still have the money to do what needs to be done for all five precincts,” she said.
Donna Hammond said she had to have a relative drive her to the meeting from Riegelwood. She said shift workers at International Paper would be prevented from voting, as would other shift workers who would have to drive to Whiteville.
Board Member Jeffrey Pridgen said he felt that early discussions about eliminating all but one polling place “were taken out of context.
“Our purpose is to provide voter access,” he said, “but we also have to careful with tax dollars.”
McPherson-Edge said the board will continue discussions at the next scheduled meeting.
Monday’s meeting can be viewed in full on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/3915399438595789
