Republican officials say GOP and auditor pressured them to reject campus voting site
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Republican board members said GOP and the state auditor pressured them.
- WCU site was approved 3-1, sending the dispute to the State Board of Elections.
- State law requires unanimous early voting plans; failed votes go to state board.
Republican election officials in Jackson County say they were pressured — by their own party and the state auditor’s office, one says — to reject a plan for an early voting site on Western Carolina University’s campus.
“I’ve been told that if I don’t vote a particular way, that they will do whatever they have to do to remove me from the board,” Republican board member Jay Pavey said.
The comments came during a stunning board meeting on Tuesday morning in which Pavey sided with the board’s Democratic minority to approve the contested polling site for use in the midterm elections this fall.
“I know that I’m bucking my party by this, and I may very well be a one-term person on the board of elections, but if that’s it, that’s fine,” he said. “I will stand on this hill and I will die on this hill.”
Tuesday’s meeting also followed the unexpected resignation of one of the board’s Republican members.
A contentious election board meeting
Influence NC, which describes itself as a “Pro-Democracy organization,” first posted audio clips from the meeting on Tuesday on social media. The News & Observer has since obtained a full recording of the meeting.
During Tuesday’s meeting, board Chair Bill Thompson also referenced “pressure from above,” though he ultimately cast the sole vote against the WCU site.
In a heated exchange, Democratic member Roy Osborn pressed Thompson on his motivation for choosing a site at a local recreation center instead of the WCU location.
“I want you to stand up and say this is a mandate from the auditor’s office,” Osborn said.
“I will state that,” Thompson responded. “Let’s get it out — let’s get it out in the open and on the record: I’m gonna vote for the rec center. Period. And it will go to Raleigh and I will wash my hands of it.”
“I want you to say ‘I’m gonna vote for the rec center because I’ve been told to by state auditor’s office,’” Osborn repeated.
“I’ve been asked to, and I’m going to,” Thompson said.
Resignation of a Republican board member
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Wes Hanemayer, one of the board’s three Republican members, submitted his resignation last week.
In his resignation letter, which was obtained by The N&O, Hanemayer said his “moral position” had been called into question by unnamed entities outside the board.
“That is where I draw the line,” he wrote. “If third parties feel they can demand that I take a completely illogical path, that means they are convinced they have control. With that being a clear conflict of conscience I choose not to be part of the (Jackson County Board of Elections) and submit to their control.”
A spokesperson for the state auditor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Matt Mercer, a spokesperson for the NC GOP, did not address the alleged pressure campaign, but said the party was “deeply committed to ensuring access to early voting locations for all eligible voters, and we are appreciative of the efforts from Auditor Dave Boliek and the state board to maintain clean voter rolls and integrity in the administration of elections.”
State law requires early voting plans to be unanimous, and Thompson’s vote left the Jackson County board with a 3-1 decision. This means the dispute over WCU’s site now gets kicked up to the State Board of Elections, which will have the final say.
All election boards in North Carolina currently have a 3-2 Republican majority due to controversial legislation passed in 2024, during the waning days of Republicans’ veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature. That legislation stripped incoming Democratic Gov. Josh Stein of his longstanding power to make appointments to election boards and transferred it to the newly elected Republican state auditor, Boliek.
Lawsuit over Western Carolina University site
WCU has hosted an early voting site for nearly a decade, but this is now the second time that the site has rankled election officials since Republicans took control.
The state board’s Republican majority voted against using the site in the March primary elections after the county board failed to reach an agreement on the issue. Students from WCU and two other colleges that were denied early voting sites sued the state board over the decision. A judge ruled against them, and the election was conducted without the sites in question.
Since taking office, Boliek has expanded the scope of his authority over elections beyond just making appointments to boards — as past governors did when they had such power.
Last year, Boliek hired Dallas Woodhouse, former director of the state Republican Party, to fill a newly created role as a liaison between the auditor’s office and county election boards. And in February, Boliek created a commission intended to lead the overhaul of the state’s election management and campaign finance software systems.
This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 12:18 PM.
