“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com
Where Are the Independent Election Board Members?
A perspective from Michael Crowell
Many municipalities across the state, including Chapel Hill and Carrboro, completed their elections recently and almost all were nonpartisan. No truly nonpartisan election board members got to oversee those elections, however. That is because all 505 election board members in the state — five on each county board and five on the State Board — are either Democrats or Republicans. Unaffiliated voters who are 34 percent of the registered voters in North Carolina are totally excluded from serving on election boards and making the crucial decisions on how voting is conducted and votes are counted.
Election boards are uniquely powerful in North Carolina. They decide on polling places, early voting sites and hours, voting equipment, the validity of petitions, candidate qualifications, and everything else about running an election. If the results of an election are disputed, election boards hold hearings and decide the outcome. Unlike other states, the State Board can throw out an election and order a new one without any involvement of the courts.
Of the seven million plus registered voters in North Carolina, 2.4 million are unaffiliated, almost matching Democrats’ 2.5 million, and outdistancing Republicans’ 2.2 million. In Orange County there are nearly 42,000 independent voters to fewer than 14,000 Republicans. Yet by law all five members of the State Board must be registered Democrats or Republicans, and chosen by those parties. Likewise, four of five county board members also must belong to the two parties. A couple of years ago the law changed to let the governor select anyone as county board chair regardless of registration. In two cycles of appointments, though, Governor Cooper has not named a single unaffiliated voter. Bless his heart, he just isn’t able to find a single qualified independent voter out of the 2.4 million in the state.
Does this make any sense? Why exclude from election administration over a third of the voters in the state? Why keep out the one group of voters who have not already signed up in favor of one party or the other? Is there any reason for the present system other than to continue to entrench the Democratic and Republican parties? Perhaps the chairs of the two parties would like to explain why they will not let independent voters serve.
“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com
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