Quiet Determination on the First Day of Early Voting in Granville and Franklin Counties

By Bri Brough, Jeremy Borden and Lorelai Sykes

As Granville and Franklin County voters cast ballots on the first day of early voting, they came out for many of the reasons driving folks to the polls all over the country, with high prices and a desire for change chief among them. 

Granville and Franklin were among the counties with historic first-day turnout. In Granville, 1,874 voters cast ballots at early voting sites on Thursday, compared to 1,073 on the first day in the last midterm election in 2022. In Franklin County, 2,157 cast ballots, compared to 1,096 in 2022.  

That’s a 75% increase from the last midterm in 2022 in Granville County and 97% increase over  2022 in Franklin County.  

Even an unpopular change in the county’s most popular early voting site at the historic Oxford Public Works in the middle of a largely Black neighborhood in downtown Oxford didn’t deter voters, at least thus far, according to interviews with voters at the Expo Center site

In fact, it may have had the opposite effect — residents, organizers and churches were galvanized by the unpopular decision, providing rides to the polls and spreading the word that voting was more important than ever.  

Keith Sexton, who wore a “love your neighbor” shirt to the new early voting site at the Expo Center on Thursday, criticized the county for moving an early voting site that was easily accessible to a site that sits off a highway without sidewalks. 

“ I think it's absolutely devastating that people who can't drive have a challenge now to vote,” Sexton said. “I don't understand why we moved from a population center to this highway that has no sidewalk, no public transportation.” 

In a series of heated meetings over the summer, the Republican-majority Granville County Board of Elections removed the county’s most popular early voting location in downtown Oxford at the Public Works building, which also sits in the middle of a largely Black neighborhood.

But as County Beacon’s data analysis showed, Republicans might have believed that they had done well to “shove the early voting plan” down the throats of the Democratic minority, as one former state official put it in a text message, but they also made it harder for voters of all political stripes and parts of the county to cast a vote early, the analysis showed.

An exasperated Patty Palabrica told a reporter that she wasn’t pleased the easy voting place had been taken away.

“I didn’t like it,” Palabrica said of the new early voting location. “(Oxford Public Works) is five minutes from my house. This took me a half an hour to get here.”

Fred Johnson, who also voted Thursday, seemed similarly incensed and said he was one of dozens who showed up at the Board of Elections to voice his discontent, only for the board to move ahead with the decision anyway. 

“We were outraged, particularly when we watched the Republican former chair texting the Republicans on the committee what to say … I was four seats away,” Johnson said, referring to a former county chair Michael Magnanti texting GOP board members, reported by County Beacon at the time. “We're not gonna forget (State Auditor Dave) Boliek — let's put it this way, when he runs again.” 

Correction: The percent change in early votes from the last midterm election in 2022 was misstated in the initial version and has been corrected as of 10/16/26 at 3:24 p.m.  

Read more

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Democracy Docket: North Carolina early voting begins with students targeted by voter suppression schemes at N.C. A&T, the largest HBCU in the country.   

The New Republic: A new analysis by a Democratic data firm shows that Latino turnout in early voting is outpacing 2024—a presidential year. That could be a big problem for Trump and the GOP.

Want to nerd out and see what’s happening with early voting returns? Use Carolina Forward’s new tracker. 

We’ll have voices from the polls all week. Follow County Beacon’s Facebook page.

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