Deadlock over Fayetteville early voting could foreshadow political fights over election rules

The Cumberland County Board of Elections failed to reach an agreement Tuesday on where to host early voting sites for this year’s local municipal elections — leaving it up to the state officials to decide the matter.

The decision came during a raucous special meeting packed with attendees from Fayetteville. It illustrated an issue that could hit other counties in the coming weeks: Political breakdowns in election administration, and disagreements about the details of how to carry out the 2025 municipal elections when most voters statewide will be picking new city council members and other local leaders.

It comes just after all 100 county boards of election, as well as the State Board of Election, switched from Democratic to Republican control due to a new law moving power from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein to Republican Auditor Dave Boliek. Stein is suing the legislature, calling it an unconstitutional power grab, but an all-Republican panel on the state Court of Appeals has so far let the changes go through.

Many of those at Tuesday’s meeting were concerned that the Cumberland County elections board might try to slash early voting availability at the Cliffdale Recreation Center, in a historically Black west Fayetteville neighborhood. That didn’t happen. But after the meeting some said they still harbored concerns.

Black voters in North Carolina are overwhelmingly affiliated with the Democratic party. And the large percentage of Democratic voters using the Cliffdale site in previous elections was a top concern for the county elections board’s new Republican majority on Tuesday. They said using only that site again could violate a state law that frowns on early voting plans that favor specific racial groups or political parties.

But local voters like Demetria Murphy feel left out of discussions that could affect their ability to participate in elections — especially since the board’s vote Tuesday came with no public comments allowed.

“I have not seen or been told about a public forum to discuss it with the community,” Murphy said in an interview after the meeting. “It kind of felt like we were invited to a space to hear your already-made decision.”

Every county in the state operates at least one early voting site in every election, usually at the county board of elections office. But they can choose to open more if they want, and in the most recent municipal elections in 2023, Cumberland County opened Cliffdale as a second site.

Despite the concerns by the dozens of local politicians, activists and voters who packed Tuesday’s meeting, the new board doesn’t appear to favor shutting down the Cliffdale site for 2025. On Tuesday the GOP majority supported keeping Cliffdale open — but also opening another early voting site, at the Kiwanis Recreation Center, in a more heavily white neighborhood closer to downtown Fayetteville.

The upcoming municipal elections are expected to be even more competitive than usual, even in a place like Cumberland County which often features tight races. There are 10 candidates for mayor of Fayetteville, including current Mayor Mitch Colvin, who initially said he wouldn't seek reelection before changing his mind. Every other Fayetteville city council seat is also contested.

Colvin won with 65% of the vote in 2023, his last time on the ballot, but he didn't face nearly as many opponents that year. In a more crowded race this year, even small decisions such as where to put early voting sites could make a difference.

Finding a partisan balance

Linda Devore, the Cumberland County Board of Elections chair, said she’s concerned that operating only the Cliffdale site — without another one to balance it out — might run afoul of state law.

State law says early voting plans may not “disproportionately favor any party, racial or ethnic group, or candidate,” Devore said. “And so the issue has been raised. And the one that really gets to the heart of what we've been discussing is whether or not having only one early voting site — in addition to the Board of Elections — gets us there.”

Irene Grimes, one of the Democratic board members in Cumberland County, said she’s concerned that opening the second site could raise costs on local cities in Cumberland County, who might be left on the hook for paying for that second site even though none of them requested it.

But the board’s Republican members said it was important to have the extra site to address concerns of partisanship.

Politics in North Carolina is often heavily divided along racial lines, with white voters tending to prefer Republican candidates and Black voters overwhelmingly preferring Democratic candidates.

And in Cumberland County specifically, U.S. Census data shows, many areas remain largely segregated along racial lines. The white neighborhoods and Black neighborhoods in Cumberland County shown in that Census data also match up largely with the county’s map of election results from the 2024 presidential contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

In the 2022 election, Republican board member Bree Eldridge said Tuesday, only 14% of the people who voted at the Cliffdale early voting site were registered Republicans.

“The Cliffdale site voted 64% Democrat, Unaffiliated 21%, Republicans 14%,” Eldridge said. “So that appears very highly partisan. And you look at the 2024 election, Kiwanis voted 36% Democrat, 31% unaffiliated, 31% Republicans. So that appears very balanced. So when I look at that, I would lean towards Kiwanis.”

In Cumberland County as a whole, Democrats make up 38.2% of registered voters, followed by Unaffiliated voters at 37.6% and Republicans at 23.3%. So neither voting site perfectly reflects the county as a whole: The people who vote at Cliffdale tend to lean more Democratic, and the people who vote at Kiwanis tend to lean more Republican.

Since the board’s Republican members aren’t willing to go with the previous setup with an early voting site at the board of elections office and the Cliffdale site, and the board’s Democratic members aren’t willing to back opening up the Kiwanis site to early voting, the board deadlocked Tuesday.

Even though Republicans have a majority on the board, state law requires county-level unanimous support for an early voting plan to pass. If anyone objects, it goes to the State Board of Elections — where Republicans also control a majority, and where unanimous approval isn’t required.