Guilford Co BOE Nixes Campus Early Voting at A&T and UNC-Greensboro

 

Four Eggers, Member, SBOE

 

Joining the Republican rush to discourage college-student voting in North Carolina, the Guilford County Board of Elections, with its Republican majority (plus one Democrat arrrrg!), passed its early voting plan, which took away General Election early voting sites previously available at North Carolina A&T and at UNC-Greensboro. The meeting was packed with students who remained quiet and respectful (for the most part) through a dirty deed that took less than 30 minutes. One person did yell out during the discussion about campus voting, “You don’t care about these people!” And was escorted out.

The vote of the board was 4-1, meaning one Democrat broke with her fellow party appointee and voted with the Republicans. Because the vote was not unanimous -- a tic in North Carolina election law -- it must now go for final resolution to the State Board of Elections (SBOE), where men like Four Eggers and Francis DeLuca and Bob Rucho will fer shore nix the campuses. The boss of these SBOE bosses, State Auditor Dave Boliek, is already well known as the vote suppressor supreme. It's a perfect circle of life, if life is like an anaconda. The NCGOP now owns access to the polls, an ambition they've had for decades.

The Democrat who voted yesterday with the Republicans is Felita Regina Donnell, a retired revenue agent for the IRS, a graduate of A&T, executive board member of the Greensboro NAACP, past president of the African American Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party, past president of Guilford County Democratic Women, and a former member of the North Carolina Democratic Party's Council of Review. I would call her a big deal in the Party. Who just left a gaping wound in the side of Democracy.

 

Watauga's Own "Four" Eggers Shuts Down Investigation into Dallas Woodhouse's Voter Suppression Activities

 

Photo Jesse Barber

 

Last Thursday, with Stacy C. Eggers IV ("Four") presiding over the State Board of Elections (SBOE), Jeff Carmon, one of two Democratic members, spoke about the allegations that preceded Dallas Woodhouse's resignation as Auditor Dave Boliek's enforcer ("liaison") to all county boards, going over and around the actual staff at the SBOE. It had become well established that Woodhouse was behind orders in some specific counties advising the closing of early voting at college campuses and an end to Sunday voting in Black communities.

“Given the seriousness of these allegations and the public attention that they have generated, I believe we have an obligation to establish a complete and factual record,” Carmon said. “At this stage, I believe the board has little choice but to subpoena Mr. Woodhouse so that he may answer questions under oath.”

Eggers was horrified and shut that shit down quickly, refused to allow a vote on a subpoena for Woodhouse, arguing hilariously that it would be inappropriate to go after Woodhouse now because he's resigned his job and is a private citizen. What? When Carmon pointed out that Woodhouse's official actions were the point, not his private behavior, Eggers retreated to a threat, warning Carmon that he'd better "drop it," before the Republican majority called for investigating people who ran the SBOE for Roy Cooper and Josh Stein. (Will Doran, WRAL)

This is the same Four Eggers who secretly directed efforts to suppress the college vote in Watauga in 2013 after his younger brother was installed as the chair of the Watauga BOE. Bertrand Gutierrez scooped that scandal for the Winston-Salem Journal, and I used up a lot of bandwidth writing about Mr. Eggers and his attempt to change the entire landscape of voting in Watauga County. The first meeting of the Watauga BOE after the Republicans took over, August 12, 2013, a huge crowd had been alerted that something bad was about to go down. The meeting room was standing room only, so they moved to the main courtroom. The Republican majority proceeded to pass a dozen or more "resolutions" (changes in policy) that were proven later by digital thumbprint to have been ghost-written by the chair's big brother Four. One of those resolutions closed early voting at AppState. That meeting, with that crowd, became a raucous circus of protest, with cat-calling and boos. The lone Democratic member of the Watauga BOE said damn twice, and it was captured on video. The Civitas people alleged that the Democratic member "cursed through the whole meeting." An exaggeration that nevertheless summarizes adequately the vibe of that day.

That decision to close AppState early voting, on appeal, was upheld by the SBOE, also Republican majority at that time. A non-profit, the Watauga County Voting Rights Taskforce, and individual plaintiffs, sued in Wake Superior Court to restore the student union site. On October 13, 2014, literally on the eve of the start of early voting for the fall elections of 2014, the senior resident judge Donald Stephens issued a sharply worded decision declaring the Watauga BOE's shutdown at AppState "arbitrary and capricious." The next morning, and just as quickly as the judge had ruled, the staff of the Watauga BOE was set up in the student union and ready for early voting. We were first in line. And we've had early voting on the AppState campus ever since because a judge ordered it. (Q. Does a judge's order have a limited lifespan? How is that determined?)

Couldn't do it in Watauga in 2014. But willing to let Dallas Woodhouse do it in 2026. Same "Four" Eggers.

 

Jackson Co. Board of Elections Member Blows the Whistle on Republican Collusion To Squelch the Youth Vote

 

Dave Boliek

 

 

We've known since the bosses in the General Assembly put Republican Auditor Dave Boliek in charge of the State Board of Elections that the GOP had drawn a cross-hatch on the youth vote. That became crystal clear when Boliek appointed Republican operative Dallas Woodhouse to "coordinate" voting plans with county parties. What Woodhouse apparently did was issue "kill" orders for university early voting sites in several county BOEs, one of which was Jackson County, home to Western Carolina University. WCU had enjoyed an early voting site on its campus since 2016. 

We don't know how Woodhouse may have delivered the message about squelching the youth vote, but the Republican majority in Jackson Co. got the message for the primary. The board voted 3-2 along partisan lines to deny WCU its usual site, and because the vote was not unanimous -- as required by state law -- the primary early voting plan had to go to the State Board of Elections with its 3-2 Republican majority. The Republicans on the SBOE naturally found it quite easy to sanction the closing of the site at WCU.

That was the primary. Now early voting plans for the General Elections are once again issues for county BOEs. Two of the three Republican members in Jackson let it be known that they supported returning early voting to the WCU campus for this fall. Those two members were promptly summoned to a secret dressing-down by the Jackson County Republican Executive Committee, which according to the member who blew the whistle, threatened the two men with expulsion from the board:

“When we made it clear what we were going to vote, we were asked to come before the Executive Committee of the Republican Party” to justify it, the whistleblower told an open meeting of the Jackson BOE Monday. “And we presented them evidence, we presented them numbers, we presented them everything,” the whistle-blower said. “And all I heard was, ‘Well, we just don’t want it on campus. We just don’t want it on campus.’ ”

One of those two renegade Republican members promptly resigned from the board in April, leaving a 2-2 split of voting members. Only one remaining Republican, the Chair of the Board, voted against the WCU site for the Fall elections. The whistle-blower and the two Democrats voted for the WCU site. The board chair was apologetic and somewhat chagrined. According to reporting by NCNewsline, he admitted during Monday's meeting that he had been pressured "from above" and that he was sorry to be the one vote that kept the plan from being unanimous. The final decision will now fall again to the SBOE, and we've seen this movie before. 

What they're doing to suppress the youth vote in the upcoming election is as plain as the large partisan nose on Dave Boliek's fat face.

NCGOP -- Whittling Away While They Can

 

The inevitable news this morning (we've been waiting for this move), and there's probably more voter suppression to come. It's their brand.

 

RALEIGH, N.C. May 27, 2026 -- Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are pushing proposals that would shorten the state’s early, in-person voting period and eliminate a Sunday voting day statewide. 

Two bills moving through the General Assembly, Senate Bill 1084 and House Bill 66, would reduce the number of early voting days before elections.

The Senate proposal would cut early in-person voting from 17 days to 10 in all 100 counties and eliminate one Sunday of voting statewide. The House version would shorten the period from 17 days to 13, also removing a Sunday voting day.

Early voting is the most popular method of casting a ballot. Most North Carolinians vote early rather than on Election Day.... [WRAL]

Sue Their Sorry Asses!

 

The new Republican majority on the Jackson Co. Board of Elections voted 3-2 to eliminate an early-voting site on the campus of Western Carolina University that has been used for a decade. According to Chris Cooper, a political scientist at WCU, the university’s voting site has served "an outsize proportion of young and diverse voters compared to the rest of the county’s polling places."

Meanwhile, the new Republican majority on the Guilford Co. Board of Elections also voted 3-2 to reject a proposal to include early voting sites at UNC Greensboro and North Carolina A&T State University, which had been the case in 2024.

It's very clear why this is going on. The youth vote is a problem for Republicans, and they intend to make it as difficult as possible for that age group. The final decision on Jackson and Guilford will be made by the State Board of Elections, and we're pretty sure how that will go with its particular Republican majority. The only remedy will be for the injured parties in Jackson and Guilford to sue.

Watauga County faced the same thing in 2013, when the election of Pat McCrory changed the local Board of Elections to Republican control (under the guiding arm of Stacy "Four" Eggers), which promptly eliminated the polling site at the AppState Student Union. The local Watauga Voting Rights Taskforce sued in Wake Superior Court, and the judge concluded that the decision was arbitrary and capricious. He ordered a polling place on the AppState campus. Far as I know that order is still good, which perhaps explains why the current Watauga BOE hasn't attempted to eliminate campus voting this year.

If anyone's interested, we know a good Raleigh law firm that might help you guys.

Snotnose Republican Freshman in NC House Intends To Limit Early Voting

 

Snotnose

Last Wednesday, Feb. 5th, Republican state Rep. Wyatt Gable filed a bill in Raleigh to drastically cut the early voting period in North Carolina from three weeks down to a mere six days, with a prohibition against any Sunday voting (because it's favored by Black voters, we assume).

Gable is an Onslow County Republican who just won election to his first term in November as a 22-year-old East Carolina University student. 

Did he not realize the enthusiastic participation by Republican voters in early voting last November? Republicans have caught on to the pleasures that they had eschewed because early voting had been such a consistent practice among Democrats. But Republicans out-voted Democrats in 2024 early voting by over 166,000.

Yet genius Gable wants to inconvenience everyone. Republicans don't seem capable of pausing their assault on voting rights, even when a particular option has greatly favored them. 

Early Voting, Day 1 in NC -- Photographic Evidence

 

Weaverville

West Charlotte

Wake County

Durham

Black Mountain

Unspecified "Small Town NC"

Schroeder Grants Injunction Against Part of S 747

 

The lawsuit against part of S 747, "Same-Day Voter Registration," which the Watauga Voting Rights Task Force initiated (background here) was finally concluded late yesterday when Federal Judge Thomas Schroeder issued an injunction against the mail verification part of that law -- until the General Assembly fixes it by giving a voter "notice and an opportunity to be heard" for why their legitimate vote should not be thrown out.

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendants and their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and those persons in active concert or participation with them, are HEREBY ENJOINED from utilizing the procedures of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-82.6B(d) to remove from the official count the votes of the ballot of any voter who has provided contact information in the registration process and whose first notice required under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 163-82.7(c) is returned by the Postal Service as undeliverable before the close of business on the business day before the canvass, without first providing such voter notice and an opportunity to be heard, and, only to this extent, Voto Latino Plaintiff’s motion (VL Doc. 44) and Party Plaintiff’s motion (DNC Doc. 6) are GRANTED. This injunction shall remain in force until such time as a procedure for notice and opportunity to be heard is implemented in accordance therewith.

The judge was obviously moved by the examples provided by Watauga County of valid voters who same-day registered and voted but who did not receive their mandated verification mailing because of clerical or post office error and through no fault of their own. The new law would have canceled their vote and their voter registration with no provision for notifying the voter and allowing them to confirm their true address.

The Ball Bounces Back to Judge Schroeder's Court

 

Previously:

AppState Student Union during Early Voting

On December 28, Federal Judge Thomas D. Schroeder of the Middle District of North Carolina heard arguments for and against an injunction to enjoin part of S 747, "Elections Law Changes," the sweeping bill fiddling with ballot access that was ultimately passed by veto override in the General Assembly on October 10th.

Watauga Co Voting Rights Task Force (WCVRT) et al. v State Bd of Elections and Philip E. Berger et al. targets one particular section of S 747, "same-day" voter registration, specifically the "undeliverable mail provision" which can disenfranchise same-day registrants because of stupid postal or clerical errors.

Following the General Election of 2022, the WCVRT tracked same-day registrants whose votes were challenged because a card-mailing to their addresses of record was returned as undeliverable, almost always because of computer or clerical error. The same-day registrants were qualified voters but were in jeopardy because of dumb mistakes. For example, mail was returned that had been directed to Ms. Xxxxx Xxxxx, address "SAME." "Same"? Because there are two lines for addresses on VR forms -- the 1st one for a physical residential address and the second for a mailing address if different from the physical address. When Ms. Xxxxx appeared at her polling location during early voting to update her address and cast a ballot, the poll worker wrote her residential address on the 1st line and wrote "Same" on the second. No post office on earth is going to delliver a piece of mail addressed "Same."

After hearing arguments, which most observers thought tilted favorably to the plaintiffs, Judge Schroeder punted, asked the two sides to work out a compromise that would lift the burden off him of ruling the law unconstitutional because it denied voters due process. Schroeder gave the two sides seven days to work something out.

WRAL reported on Friday that the two sides have failed to reach a compromise (huge surprise, right?). "The matter now lies in Schroeder's hands."

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has overruled Schroeder before on a fair elections case. Don't you think that must be on his mind right now?

What Happened in Federal Court in W-S Yesterday

 

A very full account at WRAL by Will Doran. 

Far as I can tell, from Doran's reporting and from Watauga eye-witnesses in the courtroom yesterday, Judge Thomas Schroeder -- in telling the opposing parties to "work something out in the next seven days" -- clearly doesn't want to issue an injunction against a Republican General Assembly while seeing very clearly that the new voter law, S 747, violated due process for same-day voters. (Explanation of how due process is potentially violated here.)

Doran:

On the mail verification system, on Thursday the challengers pointed to a case in Watauga County — home to Appalachian State University and one of the 25 North Carolina counties that voted for Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020 — where more than two dozen voters in a recent election had their mail from the elections board returned as undeliverable. But in every single Watauga County case, Voto Latino attorney Aria Branch said, it turned out that the voters were legitimate and that their mail had been returned because of mistakes made by poll workers or postal service employees.

To not allow voters in 2024 to know that their ballots are being thrown out due to similar mistakes, she said, would be an injustice.

 

Cooper v. Berger Being Heard Today

The three-judge panel appointed by NC Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby to hear Governor Roy Cooper's "facial" constitutional challenge of S749 (e.g., "On the face of it, this law violates the constitution of North Carolina"). S749 was the sweeping bill which completely reorganized the administration of elections in North Carolina, ultimately enacted over Cooper's veto. Cooper is claiming the bill is a constitutional breach of the separation of powers and ultimately aims at nothing less than reducing drastically the access to early voting in some (many?) counties because 4-4 county boards of election are almost guaranteed to deadlock, and the existing law sez that when there's no majority on a 4-4 board, then all early voting in that county reverts to the local Board of Elections office and no place else (O my brethren!). The case was scheduled for a first hearing this morning in the Wake County Courthouse.

Carolina Journal reported the names and affiliations of the three judges that Newby picked: Superior Court Judges Edwin Wilson, Lori Hamilton, and Andrew Womble. Wilson is the lone Democrat, appointed by Roy Cooper. Hamilton and Womble are Republicans, and I suspect Newby knows their temperament (if not their temperature) and chose accordingly.

What are the odds for Cooper? Considering that the end-all and be-all of this case, no matter what the 3-judge panel decides, will be Paul Newby Hisownself and the current other four member of the Supreme Court clatch, I ain't holding my breath. The Republicans have bent themselves silly to constantly grab more power, and where they can't just outright bar certain people from voting, they'll make the very administration of voting -- especially early voting -- completely broken. It's American carnage all right.

UPDATE

You could have knocked me over with a dandelion head, but the 3-judge panel ruled unanimously that they sure nuf would like to have a trial over whether S749 violates Governor Cooper's constitutional rights (separation of powers), and in the blessed meantime, here's a temporary injunction on implementation of replacing all boards of elections in every county with boards made up of equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats (the newest Republican scheme to put a curse on voting). With the injunction, the current administration of elections in North Carolina stays the same, which tilts all boards one vote toward the Party of the Governor. Looks like the 3-2 Democratic majority on county boards will remain in place through next March's primary.

Voting Rights Task Force Sues Over S 747

 

Immediately after the override of Governor Cooper's veto of S 747 this morning in the General Assembly, the Watauga County Voting Rights Task Force et al. brought suit in Wake Superior Court seeking "declarative and injunctive relief" against a section of the new law governing same-day voter registration, which the suit alleges is a "harmful provision [that] threatens to disenfranchise eligible voters without due process of law and, in some cases, based on mistakes made by third-parties over which the voter has no control."

From plantiffs' petition:

Prior to the passage of S 747, North Carolina’s same-day registrants’ votes were counted unless the post office returned two pieces of “undeliverable” mail. At worst, two undeliverable notices might result in a public challenge to the same-day registrants’ vote being counted, if a challenge was received by 5 p.m. on the day of the election. But even if a same-day registrants’ ballot was challenged, the registrant was entitled to notice and a hearing to defend their vote in the face of such a challenge.

The Undeliverable Mail Provision of S 747 prohibits Defendants from registering a same-day voter and counting that voter’s ballot if the United States Postal Service (“USPS”) returns as “undeliverable” a single notice sent to that voter (the “Address Verification Notice”) before the close of business on the business day before the canvass. Now, these voters do not receive any notice that their ballot was removed from the official count, let alone an opportunity to be heard in defense of their vote counting. Nor are they made aware that their registration was not effectuated. Instead, they are automatically disenfranchised and not registered to vote—all without being afforded any process to contest the removal of their votes from the count or their exclusion from the voter rolls.

This provision undermines North Carolina’s long-standing same-day registration process, wherein eligible North Carolinians may both register to vote and cast their ballots on the same day during the early voting period. Same-day registration has long been a popular and important way for new registrants to access the franchise. In the 2022 general election alone, 104,336 voters relied on it to exercise their right to vote. Those numbers were even higher for the most recent presidential election: in the 2020 general election, 116,065 North Carolinians voted using same-day registration.

The Watauga Voting Rights Task Force and the other plaintiffs are being represented in the suit by the Elias Group. 

What's Happening to Voting Under the Republican General Assembly

 

Recall for this exercise two Republican operatives in North Carolina, Jim Womack and Cleta Mitchell.

An investigative piece of journalism about the "North Carolina Election Integrity Team" (NCEIT), involving largely Jim Womack and Cleta Mitchell, appeared in The Assembly back in October last fall. It painted a picture of a kind of Republican voting gestapo of "observers" who have based all their hoped-for observations on the fantasy of widespread voter fraud. The leader of the election integrity team (NCEIT) is one Jim Womack, the GOP chair of Lee County, a former county commissioner, and a follower of Cleta Mitchell, who is herself notorious as the Trump lawyer who sat in on the call to Georgia that demanded the SecState "find" a few more thousand votes. Mitchell now lives in NC and is happy to pitch in on the project of delegitimizing democracy altogether.

According to new reporting by Randy Jacobs for WUNC, these "election integrity" gnomes have been quite active advising the General Assembly on the new Republican mega-bill changing many voting procedures, S747. Here's the flat statement of their influence: "Womack and Mitchell met with top Republican lawmakers at the state legislature as they worked on their most recent omnibus elections bill."

What they got for their trouble are all nibbles around the margins of ballot-access to pick off the young and the feckless (who are always late for whatever, it seems, but who still have a constitutional right to their vote):

Elimination of a three-day grace period for counting mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, a compromise law originally worked out between both parties back in 2009 -- now defunct.

Greater latitude granted to partisan poll observers, very much at the top of Womack and Mitchell's wish list. After this year, in some precincts where they don't like the voters, there'll be a greater likelihood of pushy observers trying to intimidate the ignorant.

Here is an important Subsection regarding same-day voters did not make it into Jacobs' article: https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewBillDocument/2023/6966/0/S747-PCS45363-BK-37 Same-day registrants must have their addresses confirmed via mail immediately following their vote:

“Notwithstanding any other provision of this Chapter, if the Postal Service returns the first notice required under G.S. 163-82.7(c) as undeliverable before the close of business on the business day before canvass, the county board shall not register the applicant and shall retrieve the applicant's ballot and remove that ballot's votes from the official count.”

What that means. "Same-day" registration and voting generally involves the young and the feckless (often uninformed as election laws have changed several times in recent years: "Where do I go? What do I need?"). They go into an Early Voting site to "same-day register and vote," and they are not asked to fill out a paper form. They are asked to speak their name, address, phone number, and other stats to a poll worker, who enters it into the computer. Any typo can render that voter unreachable by mail -- it happens a lot where there are many same-day registrants, often on college campuses -- and correct addresses are obviously newly crucial in S747, because the new law (above) specifies that a single mailing will be sent to the same-day registrant after the election, and if that mailing is returned for any reason, then that voter is removed from the rolls and their paper vote retrieved and destroyed.

In a county like Watauga, that could involve up to hundreds of people who will be disenfranchised due to no error of their own. And the new law doesn't even require they be notified.

S747 has been passed by both houses and awaits either Cooper's signature or his veto. We know it ought to be a veto.

UPDATE

The governor has indeed vetoed this bill.

Get Ready, Young People, for Discouraging Words and Deeds

 

There's already a bill introduced in Raleigh (H123) to shorter Early Voting to seven days. Can other limits to democracy be far behind? Like discouraging the voting of college students, as Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell recently lectured a private meeting of Republican donors in Nashville was essential if Republicans are going to win elections going forward. 

Mitchell is the North Carolina-based founder of the Election Integrity Network, mainly aimed at decreasing voter turnout, especially among non-Republican cohorts, and she's a well known Stop the Steal personality. Mitchell was on the call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021 when Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn the result. She resigned from her law firm when that call became public.

Of course the authoritarians in Raleigh will figure out more ways to suppress the vote in North Carolina, especially the vote of young people. They have to. The vote of the young is an existential threat to their continued power.

At least in Watauga County there's still a Wake County Superior Court order mandating an Early Voting site on the AppState campus.

The Power of Woman Compels You

 

Polls, media prognosticators, even SNL have conspired to depress Democratic turnout tomorrow, with unrelenting negative assessments of our chances of turning back, or even blunting, the further Trumpification of our Republic.

Not all signs are negative, so in the interest of easing anxiety, here are some parting shots on the Eve of Election Day:

Jane Porter, from her Indy Week daily Press Club email: Early voting numbers are up from 2018. Through Sunday, 2,152,371 ballots have been accepted from across North Carolina and via absentee voting. Axios reports there could still be 5.2 million ballots from registered voters to come on Election Day. Here's how the votes breakdown by party affiliation:

Dem: 821,340 (up nearly .5 percent from 2018)

Rep: 673,764 (up nearly 1 percent from 2018)

Una: 651,363 (up .2 percent from 2018)

But the number of ballots cast by Black voters is slightly down from 2018, Axios reports: Black voters have cast 402,094 ballots this year (26.7 percent of registered voters) compared with 28.5 percent after early voting in 2018. Obviously, Black voters are key to helping elect Democrats in North Carolina and across the nation.

"Don't sleep on women." Advice from Whitney Ross Manzo, associate professor of political science at Meredith College, published in The Assembly newletter:

"I think abortion will matter more than people think. As you know, I work at a historically women's college, and my students are zeroed in on this issue. The first day of class, I always ask what students think is the hottest current political issue, and there is usually a lot of variety. This year, I only heard about abortion/reproductive rights/reproductive justice. Even from students I know are conservative! The news keeps saying this election will be about the economy but don't sleep on women—especially younger ones—in this cycle."

I'm counting on women! And I'm counting on pollsters' inability to know who to poll under the circumstances -- thousands of new voters who have no previous voting history. 

Some Statewide Early Voting Turnout Numbers

 

I'm indebted to Jeffrey Billman's new PRIMER/North Carolina (and see below about Billman's valuable fresh contribution to your appreciation for hard news), who's indebted to political scientist Michael Bitzer, for the following early voting statistics from North Carolina (through last Saturday, October 17):

A total of 1,433,772 votes had been cast in North Carolina as of the close of business on Saturday, counting both Absentee By Mail (ABM) and Absentee One-Stop (in-person voting). That number equals 20% of registered voters in the state and 46% of the total number of absentee voters in 2016 (46% of the 2016 vote in only the first three days of early voting, holy cow!).

By party:

Democrats: 46%

NoPartyAffiliation: 28%

Republicans: 25%

By generation:

Boomers: 45%

Gen X: 22%

Millennials: 14%

Greatest/Silent:14%

Gen Z: 5%

By regions:

City: 31%

Urban suburb: 26%

Surrounding suburbs: 24%

Rural: 19%

Important: 22% of these votes — roughly 308,000 — came from people who either didn’t vote in 2016 or registered afterward.

Burning questions and snap assumptions proliferate in my brain as I peruse those numbers -- like Unaffiliated voters out-voting Republican voters, let alone the surging turnout of Democrats -- and the lagging performance of Gen X, Millennials, and (yikes!) Gen Z (sort yourselves out, kids!) -- but beyond that I'll leave you to your own private cogitations.

Now, about the estimable Jeffrey Billman and his daily, free newsletter (though you can also subscribe, which I did, which gives you more, including access to the archives). Billman used to edit the Indy Week in Durham and produced a daily newsfeed which I would devour and often steal from, but he's gone fully independent, and I'm all for supporting the work of independent news sources when so many newspapers are going caput. Here's how Billman describes his labor of love:

If you’re trying to figure out what this newsletter is about, think of it like this: Imagine your news-junkie friend obsessively consuming media from the Triangle, North Carolina, and across the country, boiling down all of the essential stories to their core points, putting things in their historical and political contexts, and giving you the rundown while you have your morning coffee.

Suits me! You can join him on Facebook, where you can also sign up for the free daily newsletter or go further like I did and throw a little money his way. He's already become essential reading for me. 

Long Lines Everywhere in North Carolina for First Morning of Early Voting

 

Early Voting, 2020 Primary--Watauga County Compared to Rest of State

According to Dr. Michael Bitzer, Democratic turnout for early voting in the current primary election went up some 33% statewide. In some 27 counties, Democratic turnout shot up like a rocket:

Increase over 2016's Democratic Early Vote

Wake 79%
Union 78%
Iredell 74%
Yadkin 73%
Brunswick 70%
New Hanover 63%
Northampton 63%
Mecklenburg 59%
Forsyth 56%
Moore 56%
Alamance 55%
Henderson 51%
Guilford 47%
Johnston 45%
Bertie 44%
Stokes 41%
Currituck 40%
Lincoln 39%
Anson 38%
Durham 36%
Chatham 35%
Harnett 34%
Gates 34%
Transylvania 34%
Pamilco 34%
Cabarrus 34%
Buncombe 33%

(Can't look at that chart without marveling over Yadkin's showing. What's going on in Yadkin, where you could hardly find a Democrat a few years ago?)

Meanwhile, in Watauga County, overall (all party) early voting turnout was down in 2020 (5,915 total votes cast) compared to early voting in the 2016 primary (7,215 total votes). Turnout by party affiliation was also down: Democrats down 17% from 2016; Unaffiliateds down 24%; and Republicans down a whopping 52% (whopping considering all the Republican primary races on their party's ballot). In fact, the overall voter turnout in Watauga for early voting was down primarily because some 800 Republicans who showed up in 2016 didn't bother to show up in 2020 -- at least not during early voting. Maybe they all were waiting for tomorrow.

Republican primary races aren't energizing Watauga Republicans, and Democratic primary races aren't energizing Democratic voters like they were energized in 2016, though they're clearly more engaged in Watauga than the Republicans.

Gen-Z Turning Out in NC Primary Elections

From the indefatigable Gerry Cohen just now:

NC campus early voting sites through Monday (note many votes may be faculty/staff) NCSU 1140 Duke 681 AppState 564 FayState 426 ECU 391 UNC-CH* 337 NCCU 317 UNC-C 283 UNC-G 215 WSSU 204 WCU 155 A&T 141


Additional numbers from Watauga County. Of 1,011 total voters cast at all early voting sites through Feb. 17:

45% D
19% R
36% U
Of the 359 U's who voted, 82% chose a Democratic ballot.

Gen-Z Is Coming For You, Thom Tillis!

Voting by university students in North Carolina is going to go up soar in 2020. They've got a high fever for participating this year because they hate the direction we've taken. They've been paying increasing attention, and they know shit from Shinola. So you got trouble, Thom Tillis. Maybe not now, but soon, and for the rest of your life. 

Interest runs high for his March's primary (and look below at the list of 14 Early Voting Election sites on college campuses starting February 13). Most of Gen-Z will be voting the Democratic ballot, particularly the presidential race. The vast majority won't even see Thom Tillis's name. They'll see the names of Tillis's would-be Democratic opponent, and they'll pick the winner. Come November, Tillis will be in their line of sight, and I think Gen-Z will not be done with voting yet.

1. AppState led the way after the 2012 Republican takeover of our election machinery by fighting for on-campus voting rights. In 2020, the Plemmons Student Union will again host Early Voting from February 13 through February 29, the entire period mandated by law. New registrations on campus are reportedly already running high. Deadline to register for the March 3rd primary: February 7.

2. UNC-Chapel Hill. The Daily Tar Heel reports that whereas the UNC campus was previously divided between five different precincts, with far-flung and difficult-to-find polling locations, the Orange Board of Elections has consolidated all on-campus student housing into a single mega-precinct with an on-campus E-Day polling place. Early Voting this February, yes, at Chapel of the Cross on East Franklin St., if not exactly in the heart of the campus then at least in its left ventricle.

3. NC A&T University, Dudley Building. Full Early Voting.

4. UNC-Greensboro, Kaplan Center for Wellness. Full Early Voting.

5. Winston-Salem State, Anderson Center. Full Early Voting.

6. Fayetteville State University, Smith Recreation Center. Yep.

7. Duke University, Brodhead Center 068 (dead center of campus). Yep.

8. North Carolina Central University, School of Law. Yes.

9. Durham Tech - North Campus. Yes.

10. East Carolina University, student union. You got it.

11. Western Carolina University. Yes.

12. UNC-Charlotte, Belk Gym. Yes.

13. Cape Fear Community College, Health Sciences Learning Resources bldg. Yes.

14. North Carolina State University, Talley Student Union. Yes.


These constitute a wave of sorts.