Black Lives Matter flags will remain over this NC town’s voting site on Election Day
Tuesday could be the last day voters cast ballots at Carrboro Town Hall unless the town removes Black Lives Matter flags now hanging there during future elections, the state Board of Elections said Monday.
An N.C. State Board of Elections statement issued Monday said it is too late to shut down the polling place for Tuesday’s election. But if the town does not take the four flags down, the state will take steps to make sure Town Hall isn’t used for voting again.
Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle told The News & Observer through a spokeswoman Monday that she “would rather not address the matter” of the town’s decision to keep the flags flying until Wednesday.
The state asked the town to remove the flags last week after getting complaints, The N&O reported.
The town met in a closed session Thursday but took no official action, and the flags remain outside Town Hall. On Friday, the bipartisan Orange County Board of Election held an emergency meeting and voted unanimously to keep the polling place at Town Hall.
The board made its decision “because of the disruption it would cause to voters if we were to move the polling place three days before an election,” Orange County elections director Rachel Raper said Monday.
“In a different timetable, we might could have moved the polling place ... we would look at the totality of the circumstances and just go from there as a board,” she said.
In its statement Monday, State Board of Elections spokesman Patrick Gannon said the board must remain neutral and “address any circumstances where voters feel intimidated or uncomfortable exercising their constitutional right to vote.” However, state law requires voters to be notified about a polling place change at least 30 days before the election.
“We will take steps to ensure that this site is not used as a polling place in any future election without written assurances from town officials that the flags or other communication will not be present inside the buffer zone or voting enclosure during voting,” Gannon said in the statement.
The town has flown the flags since July 20. On Thursday, the Town Council decided after meeting with its attorney to keep the flags flying, according to town spokeswoman Catherine Lazorko.
Carrboro’s Town Hall, at 301 W. Main St., is a regular early-voting site for Orange County and a precinct polling place on Election Day.
Orange County Republican Party received complaints
The flags became an issue after Waddy Davis, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, reported getting complaints, including 15 to 18 in writing, about the flags. The state elections board also had received complaints about the flags, executive director Karen Brinson Bell said in a letter emailed to the town last week.
One of those complaints, which the board forwarded to The N&O, noted that the four flags were past a sign banning electioneering.
The writer said upon seeing the flags, he questioned whether his vote would be fairly counted at the site and chose to go to another early voting site instead.
Republican poll workers have put up with swearing and middle fingers in Carrboro, Davis added, and some have been reluctant to work at the site.
“It’s not welcoming to a lot of people, to my side,” Davis said. “Black lives matter, of course. Every life matters. Your life matters.”
The concern, Brinson Bell said in a letter to the town, is that the flags “could be interpreted as an official endorsement by the board of elections in favor of a particular movement.”
“As Executive Director of the State Board and the state’s chief elections official, I take seriously the complaint of any voter who may be offended by the presence of that symbol when exercising their right to vote. I know you, too, care about the sensibilities of all of the voters in Orange County,” the letter stated.
Town Manager David Andrews has not returned calls seeking comment about the decision. Raper said she also has not heard from Carrboro town officials about why the council decided to keep the flags up.
This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 12:45 PM.
