Local Boards of Elections across North Carolina have been holding meetings recently to adjust early-voting plans after the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down provisions of North Carolina’s Voter ID law last month.
Beyond presenting a photo ID approved by the state at the polls to vote, the law that was struck down also shortened the early-voting period from 17 to 10 days, among other provisions. That led to the Orange County Board of Elections holding a meeting Tuesday to create a new early-voting plan.
For the better part of an hour on Tuesday afternoon, Orange County residents packed a room at the Board of Elections office during a public comment period asking officials to provide more hours for early voting, including on Sundays.
Maria Palmer is a member of the Chapel Hill Town Council and is one of the plaintiffs that brought the lawsuit challenging the Voter ID law. She said Sunday voting would be beneficial, especially to the growing Latino community in the county.
“We know in the Hispanic community,” Palmer said, “Sunday is one of the few days that construction workers get off and most housekeepers get off.
“We need Sunday voting.”
Among those asking for extended hours and Sunday voting was Orange County Commissioner Penny Rich. She said the commissioners had spoken since the federal court ruling and agreed to allocate the needed money to fund the expanded hours.
“As a sign of this commitment, we respectfully request that the Board of Elections create an early-voting schedule that maximizes the hours, the days and the locations for residents to vote for the November election,” Rich said when reading from a letter from the commissioners to the Board of Elections.
As the meeting continued through speaker after speaker asking for extended hours and especially Sunday voting, it immediately became apparent among the board’s discussion that was not going to happen.
The one Democratic member of the three-member board, Jamie Cox, did not suggest any Sunday hours in his proposed plan.
Cox said he based that off of previous efforts to get Sunday voting being shot down by the two other members of the board – both Republicans – Bob Randall and board chair Kathy Knight.
“One of the things that will not be popular with my party, is that my plan does not include Sunday hours,” Cox said when presenting his early-voting proposal. “That’s something we have fought for in the past, and I understand is not in the cards.”
Randall responded later in the meeting saying he was representing his party – Republicans – and that Sunday voting was not popular within that group.
Eventually, a plan from chair Knight was put forward. After approximately a dozen motions being presented from Cox, a plan was approved by a 2-1 margin with Randall objecting. All of the previous amendments from Cox hoping to expand voting hours died for lack of a second.
The room had thinned out as the meeting eclipsed the two-hour mark, but the crowd showed it still had a lot of fight over one particular line from Randall.
“The state has…bent over backwards to make voting accessible,” Randall said to a crowd that let out a collective howl as residents pointed to the strongly-worded ruling saying North Carolina had targeted African-American voters with “almost surgical precision” when crafting the Voter ID law.
Randall objected to the final plan approved by the other two members of the board, although he would not give a firm answer as to why he objected to the proposal when pressed by those still in the room.
The approved plan calls for five locations to be open for early voting.
The county Board of Elections and Carrboro Town Hall will be open from nine o’clock in the morning until six o’clock in the evening each weekday of early voting. Meanwhile, the Efland Ruritan Club, Chapel of the Cross and the Seymour Center will be open from noon until seven o’clock each evening. On the first two Saturdays of early voting, all sites will be open from nine o’clock until four o’clock in the afternoon. On the final Saturday, early voting will be permitted to run from nine o’clock that morning until one o’clock in the afternoon.
The plan also calls for polls to be open until 7:30 in the evening on the last three weekdays of early voting.
The board said that would total 565 hours of early voting.
Randall has the right to submit his own plan to the State Board of Elections, which will ultimately decide which plan to go with.
There is no timeline for that decision.
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