Photos Show Former GOP Chair Texting Granville County Board of Elections Members During Public Meeting
Granville County Board of Elections Secretary Debby Butler stayed mostly quiet during Wednesday’s public hearing to revisit the county’s contentious early voting plan, which removes convenient sites in diverse neighborhoods in Oxford and Creedmoor and has prompted significant community backlash.
But after Democratic board members had been imploring Butler and her GOP colleague, Douglas Smith, to respond to the concerns, someone shouted: “We want to hear what Debby thinks!” She eventually said: “We (already) voted on a plan I agree with.” The audience groaned.
As it turns out, we still may not know what Butler really thinks because she was being told what to say through text messages from Michael Magnanti, a former chairman of the Granville County Republican Party, according to photos of those texts reviewed by County Beacon from a local photographer who attended the meeting.
Text to Granville County Elections Board Member Debby Butler:
“Say we don’t agree”
“We voted on a plan that I agree with”
“You don’t agree with me”
“Just tell her. We do not agree.”
Text to Granville County Elections Board Member Debby Butler:
“Ignore the money argument”
“It isn’t Correct”
“We disagree”
“South Branch is…dangerous site”
Magnanti was texting both Butler and fellow Granville County Elections Board member Douglas O. Smith, the other Republican serving on the board during the meeting. The county board election’s chairman, Larue Ulshafer, resigned before Wednesday’s meeting. The texts correspond to what board members said at the meeting.
Text to Granville County Elections Board member Doug Smith:
“Great job”
“Doug please no more comments”
“Please do not make or 2nd a motion”
“Please mute your phone”
The images were taken by local photographer Cole Rodger, who told County Beacon that she was there to attend the meeting and was taking pictures to document it. County Beacon is republishing the photos with Rodger’s permission. “I was standing next to a woman when shooting and she patted the chair next to her and asked me to sit,” Rodger told County Beacon in an interview. “I was watching the discussion next to her when I realized Mike was texting where I could see, so I just shot. I could not read it until I got home. I thought it would be nothing, but I was quite shocked when I started to edit.”
County Beacon reached out to Magnanti and the board members. We have not yet received a response but will update this story with any provided responses.
At the meeting, Democratic board members decried the injection of partisanship in the process. In normal years, county elections boards adopt site and voting plans with little fanfare, which has changed markedly this year as Republicans shifted the responsibility from the governor’s office to GOP State Auditor Dave Boliek.
Democratic Board Member Teresa Gilreath implored her GOP colleagues, Butler and Smith, to look at the data on how the sites have been used in prior years and see that the county’s proposal didn’t make sense based on where most people live. The plan will make it harder, particularly for people in Black and Latino neighborhoods in Oxford and Creedmoor, to vote.
“This is bad business for Granville County to be going down this path unnecessarily for partisanship reasons,” she said at Wednesday’s meeting. “We're supposed to be meeting the voting needs of our community, not trying to favor one party. Don't dig your heels in and follow this crazy (path)."
Longtime voting rights advocate Bob Hall said in an interview that it was Republicans in the General Assembly who pushed to clarify state law that voting plans should not benefit one party or group over another.
“The level of partisanship is over the top,” he said of the text exchange and Granville County’s process. “It’s excessive craziness.” Of the plan that Granville has adopted: “It’s bald-faced racist. The decision is outrageous; it makes no sense other than to give white Republicans an advantage, and the way it was done is so removed from a good, fair process that the whole thing should be thrown out.”
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Read more about this story:
Data, Passion, Disgust – Granville’s Elections Board Remains Deadlocked on Early Voting Sites
Yes it Was Approved But it Wasn’t Easy: Funding the Fourth Early Voting Site
Granville County’s Elections Board in Turmoil After June 30th Meeting
Granville County Board of Elections Divided Over Polling Locations