NC county elections meeting erupts over early voting disputes, auditor influence
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- Granville elections board failed to agree on a revised early voting plan Wednesday.
- County commissioners approved $60,000 in funding that could have restored a closed site.
- Allegations involved the state auditor's office after liaison Dallas Woodhouse resigned.
In a heated meeting on Wednesday, the Granville County Board of Elections failed to reach an agreement on a revised early voting plan as members of the public made allegations of undue influence from the state auditor’s office and racial bias in polling sites.
The board had already split on the issue last month, with the Republican majority opting to eliminate a voting site in Creedmoor and move another away from downtown Oxford — both of which are areas where Democrats fared better in the 2024 election than in other parts of the county.
After last month’s meeting, however, the Granville County Board of Commissioners approved funding for an additional site, potentially allowing election officials to restore the Creedmoor location, which is located at the South Branch Library.
But despite this additional $60,000 in funding, in a 2-2 vote Wednesday, the Republicans on the elections board voted once again to keep the South Branch Library closed.
“So going to get the money served absolutely no purpose,” Teresa Gilreath, a Democrat on the board who helped negotiate the funding, said. “Was that just for the humiliation of Teresa?”
Since members did not reach a unanimous agreement, the decision now goes to the State Board of Elections, which has a 3-2 Republican majority.
Republican board member Doug Smith said he was concerned about safety at the South Branch site.
“We’ve had electioneers get rowdy,” he said. “Our director has had to go down and correct them.”
Gilreath responded that, to her understanding, the board had not received complaints on any of the voting sites in the past.
Critics of moving the South Library and Oxford sites also noted that the areas serve a larger share of Black voters.
“There’s no logical reason to close these two early voting sites unless the goal is to reduce access, especially for Black voters and for the majority of Granville County voters who use these sites successfully,” Kristin Hefner, a Butner resident, said during the public comment portion of the meeting.
The meeting was frequently interrupted by angry outbursts from the crowd, some of whom accused Republican members of acting at the behest of Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek — who controls appointments to election boards.
“I have not been contacted by Boliek’s office,” Smith said after one such outburst. “I have not been contacted by anybody; I have come to my conclusions on my own.”
In recent weeks, a steady drip of news stories have circulated about staff in Boliek’s office attempting to influence early voting plans. This week, Dallas Woodhouse, the auditor’s election liaison, resigned his position after a series of articles about his texts with county board members.
Granville’s own Republican county board chair, Larue Ulshafer, resigned last month after referring to the auditor as “the boss” in a meeting about the early voting sites, Carolina Public Press reported.
In a phone call to Ulshafer, Woodhouse said that Boliek preferred to keep four early voting sites, rather than the three the board ultimately approved, according to notes produced in response to a public records request by voting rights activist Bob Hall.
Ulshafer’s vacancy on the elections board has not yet been filled.
