Lincoln County Early Voting Schedule Changes [View all]

[davidt2974]

Via Rosemary Hubbard for NC House District 97:

The Lincoln County Board of Elections has made what can only be considered misguided and partisan changes to this year’s early voting schedule.

According to a report in the Lincoln Herald, Democrat Marsha Jordan voted against the plan that was eventually approved. “I told them it was blatantly politically motivated,” Jordan said. Republicans Wayne Mitchem and Charles Newman voted in favor of the plan.


Deanna McGinnis, who chairs the Lincoln County Democratic Party, told the Lincoln Herald:

“Republicans now dominate the BOE in every county and it appears some of these extreme GOP-dominated boards have forgotten the concept of fair play of equal access to the ballot box!

Whether it’s students at Appalachian or African-Americans in Lincoln County, it appears that the game plan is to discourage easy access to the ballot box, and in the case of Lincoln County equal hours for a early voting site in the most densely African-American populated area of the county.”

The Lincoln County Board of Elections developed a plan for early voting that gives predominantly Democrat Lincolnton only 38 early voting hours while providing 70 hours each for four other more Republican-leaning voting locations.

These changes were enacted to comply with the new “VIVA” Voter ID law that passed in the General Assembly last year. While these changes as well as those in the overall new law will make it more difficult for some to vote; it can’t be used as an excuse to not vote! We’ll double our efforts to educate Lincoln County residents on these changes as well as the many issues facing our neighborhoods and throughout North Carolina.

There is no right more important than the right to vote.

Read more about the early voting schedule changes and more reactions in this column by Wayne Howard in the Lincoln Herald.