Office of State Auditor Dave Boliek Refuses to Answer Questions about the Granville County Board of Elections

We reached out to the office of N.C. State Auditor Dave Boliek, who now runs the State Board of Elections, for comment on the recent Granville County Board of Elections meeting about early voting sites. 

We asked two questions: 

1. What does Auditor Boliek think about the process that transpired in Granville County? Is he concerned about perceptions of partisanship considering the photos of Mike Magnanti, a local political operative, coaching elections board members during a public meeting?

2. Given that the proposed early voting plan in Granville County moves early voting sites out of majority-Black population centers and into rural, whiter parts of the county, what steps is the auditor's office taking to ensure that the plan does not "disproportionately favor any party, racial or ethnic group or candidate" as required by G.S. 163-166.35?

This was the response we received from Randy Brechbiel, his communications director: 

“You appear to be an advocacy platform rather than a local news site. But thanks for reaching out.”

Then we gave him another chance to respond. Was that really what the Auditor wanted to say on these big issues? Brechbiel, whose last job according to LinkedIn was working for arguably the most powerful member of the Republican Party in North Carolina, Sen. Phil Berger, didn’t respond further. 

Here’s the problem with Brechbiel’s  response:

First, the Auditor’s Office should be willing and wanting to answer questions from everybody — especially questions like the ones we posed that we’ve heard from community members all around Granville. And, of course, he’s wrong: County Beacon is a nonpartisan news, information and commentary project that serves and uplifts the people of Franklin and Granville counties. The fact that the Auditor’s Office decided that County Beacon is not worthy of a response to legitimate questions of great importance to our community shows a troubling disregard for everyone — we are all their constituents. As for County Beacon, we’re not partisan, but we are unapologetically pro-democracy. It should not be “partisan” to care about whether voters of any party or affiliation are able to easily exercise their constitutional right to vote.

Most troubling is that election administration — which should be about making voting fair and accessible — is being contorted by partisan actors at the highest levels, as this episode makes clear. County Beacon will continue to ask questions of our elected officials on behalf of those we serve.