The Facts Behind the Watauga County Elections Changes

The Watauga County Board of Elections met on August 12 and “welcomed” a new board member who was ultimately elected chairman, Luke Eggers , a Republican. He had been sworn in almost one month after the other two board members, Bill Aceto, a Republican, and Kathleen Campbell, a Democrat.

This article, with must-see videos of the meeting, shows that not everyone was happy with the changes proposed at the August 12 meeting, especially Democratic board member Kathleen Campbell and the crowd that cheered her onward.

Not to be distracted, Eggers and the board went to work to combine three precincts into one and voted to open only one early voting site for this November’s municipal election. These were two good and logical decisions because both provided for a more reasonable use of county resources.

As for the one-stop, early voting changes for the 2013 Municipal Election, the reduction in voting sites seems perfectly reasonable given the actual voter turnout in recent municipal elections. In November 2009, a total of 2,194 people voted in the municipal elections, with 785 voting early at a one-stop site. According to this article, Watauga County opened three one-stop, early voting sites (all situated in a 1.5-mile track) in the 2009 municipal elections. They were open a total of 261 hours prior to election day, including the Appalachian State University (ASU)student center, which was open for 35 hours. Averaging the 785 votes cast during the course of the early voting period results in about 3.0 votes cast per hour.

In 2011, the county opened two one-stop, early voting sites (one at the Board of Elections and the other at the ASU student union) for the municipal elections. Total turnout was 1,391 voters — 405 cast ballots at one-stop early voting. This time the average votes per hour during early voting came to 2.7.

Statistics don’t lie: Overall, the one-stop sites in the last two municipal elections provided voting for less than three people an hour. The new majority on the Watauga BOE recognized that the county’s money could be better spent on things other than adding an additional one-stop, early voting site just a mile away from the statutorily mandated one.

The Board also voted to re-combine Boone precincts 1, 2 and 3 into one precinct for Election Day voters. According to the resolution to re-combine Boone precincts, Boone 1, Boone 2, and Boone 3 will now be known as Boone. Just looking at the precincts geographically, the board’s decision makes sense. But in order to make changes to precincts it’s necessary to take into account other factors such as voter registration and turnout. The Board majority cited low turnout in general as rationale for this change, but they also emphasized that the majority of these voters vote early — just about 72 percent in 2012. The Republican majority was right to point out that because of early voting, turnout at Boone’s three polling places is now low on Election Day. And they were also right to point out that these three precincts have the lowest turnout by percentage of voters in the county. (See the 2012 General Election chart below). Considering the actual data, one main precinct in Boone should sufficiently be able to accommodate the Election Day voting traffic.

precinct_desc	CountOfvoter_reg_num	2012 vote	% Turnout
BALD MOUNTAIN	475	346	72.84%
BEAVER DAM	1044	729	69.83%
BEECH MOUNTAIN	399	263	65.91%
BLOWING ROCK	2720	1830	67.28%
BLUE RIDGE	3541	2464	69.58%
BOONE 1	2022	1111	54.95%
BOONE 2	3899	2095	53.73%
BOONE 3	4228	2106	49.81%
BRUSHY FORK	4096	2436	59.47%
COVE CREEK	2386	1582	66.30%
ELK	564	375	66.49%
LAUREL CREEK	1187	739	62.26%
MEAT CAMP	2413	1602	66.39%
NEW RIVER I	2809	1673	59.56%
NEW RIVER II	3203	1939	60.54%
NEW RIVER III	4051	2504	61.81%
NORTH FORK	166	97	58.43%
SHAWNEEHAW	632	435	68.83%
STONY FORK	1831	1283	70.07%
WATAUGA	3199	2094	65.46%
TOTAL	44865	27703	61.75%

 

Campbell asked the other board members, sarcastically, why they weren’t combining other precincts. She had a point. Combining the Boone 1, 2 and 3 is a good idea for now and maybe through 2015, but the elections board should really consider erasing all precinct lines in the county and start with a clean slate.

This would probably be a good idea for a lot of counties in North Carolina. Since precincts were first drawn, a lot has changed in North Carolina. The population has exploded and it has shifted. Not long ago we were a rural state, but now more than half our population lives in cities. With the advent of early voting, we are voting much differently than the days when we all voted within a 13-hour period on one day in our home precincts.

Another change the Watauga Board made that I particularly liked dealt with personnel working alone during elections. The Director’s duties were changed so that “no staff member of the Watauga County Board of Elections shall be present at the office outside of normal business hours from the time one-stop, early voting starts and the completion of canvass unless another staff member is present.” This is also a logical change that can help protect the integrity of elections in Watauga County and would also protect the Director, who suggested she worked long hours alone during elections.

In August, the new Watauga County Board of Elections went to work to make some innovative and needed changes to the way elections will be administered in that county. While the reaction to the changes made them seem more bold than they really were, we should expect innovation from other counties’ BOEs in the near future. We should also expect the same dissent from the political party and the progressive liberals who have controlled the elections process in North Carolina for over a century.

The Democratic member and the crowd took offense to not opening a polling place and the one-stop, early voting site on campus in November. What this means is that students, in this municipal election, will now have to walk, ride or drive about a mile to the closest voting site at the Watauga County Administration Building for early voting or the Agricultural Conference Center on Election Day. Looking at the whole situation, this is hardly a terrible burden. In any case, voting officials have to consider the needs of everybody, not just one select group.