Editorial: N.C. Auditor Dave Boliek’s office “shove(d)” an early voting plan down our throat. How will Granville respond?

North Carolina Republicans have gotten very good over the years at telling us “there’s nothing to see here” we hand while acting with impunity with the other. 

They told us, sure, we took Granville County’s most popular early voting site away from the middle of Oxford, N.C. — which just so happens to sit in a mostly Black neighborhood. 

Nothing to get too upset about, they effectively said.

Auditor Dave Boliek told The Assembly at an event last week that he mostly wants to focus on audits and that changes like the ones in Granville wouldn’t affect people’s ability to vote. “I don’t see any specific things that would impact any voter one way or the other,” he said.

Nothing to see here, Boliek says. Tell that to people in Oxford who don’t have reliable transportation and to the folks who packed meetings this summer asking why they would move Granville County’s most popular early voting site.  

Let’s get real: Boliek’s office has led an unprecedented effort to meddle in early voting plans in the most partisan way possible, hiring the former chair of the state GOP, Dallas Woodhouse, to impose the office’s will on county election boards.

Don’t take our word for it. Just look at what former state elections official Dallas Woodhouse said to the former chair of the Granville County Board of Elections, Larue Ulshafer.  

“Larue: Let Kelly Mann and I know … when your meeting is to shove our new Granville early voting plan down their throats,” Woodhouse wrote in text messages obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight. “One or both of us will be there to support you and tell the Democrats where to go stick it.”

So this had nothing to do with safety or crowding concerns voiced by board members (or the guy texting them from the front row), after all.

County Beacon won’t tell you who to vote for. But we’ll say this: no official in Raleigh should make it harder for you to vote. So do what you need to do and get out there and vote — and try to vote early, if you can. You can call or text 1-888-OUR-VOTE for a ride to the polls. 

There is a silver lining here: It’s clear that people in power are scared of the power of the people. If they didn’t think your vote mattered, they wouldn’t go to all this trouble. So go exercise that power — and bring a friend. You can vote early today until October 31 or on Election Day, November 3. 

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