ROWAN COUNTY — The November general election early voting schedule in Rowan is still undecided after a brief special meeting of the Board of Elections on July 8 ended in another stalemate.
The Rowan County Board of Elections first met to vote on the schedule for early voting on June 10, considering five different plans ranging from the minimum 13 days to the maximum 17 days. The primary variation of these options was the specific weekend days included.
The board is required to have a unanimous vote for early voting, but they could not come to a consensus on June 10. They were split between 13 days and 15 days, with the three Republican representatives supporting the former and the two Democrats supporting the latter. With this stalemate, the issue was initially set to go to the North Carolina Board of Elections with representatives for each voting plan.
Special meeting
However, the Board of Elections announced a special meeting with the only agenda item being a vote on the “Early Voting Plan for 2026 General Mid-Term Election.” The agenda did not clarify on which voting plans the board would be voting. Additionally, the agenda did not include a public comment period, but over 50 people attended the meeting anyway.
With only one agenda item, the Board of Elections Chair Dave Collins started off with a proposed vote for the compromised plan, which was 13 days with an additional Sunday proposed as Oct. 25.
How this compromise was communicated before the meeting was initially unclear. Board members DeeDee Wright and Elaine Hewitt indicated to the Salisbury Post that Collins communicated with board members individually to propose a compromise. Collins confirmed that he spoke with each board member individually over a few days. He reported that all parties had agreed with the proposed compromise prior to the meeting.
After a vote was proposed, however, Wright tried to start discussion, which Collins stopped saying that state law prohibited them from having discussion on the matter.
“My initial reaction was confusion. I was going along with what was written on the agenda. The agenda stated that there would be discussion and what I wanted to do was to explain the decision,” Wright said.
However, board member Evelyn Medina continued discussion, asking questions about rationale behind having voting on one Sunday and one Saturday not on the same weekend. Collins came back and said that because there is not a determined plan on the agenda that they could discuss which Sunday should be the plan. Hewitt contributed that they decided on Oct. 25 based on previous voting turnout.
Medina also asked Collins and Elections Director Sharon Main if the board had received any emails from Dallas Woodhouse, an election liaison in the N.C. State Auditor office that was recently reassigned. Woodhouse is suspected of potentially influencing early voting locations and timelines based on correspondence gained from various public information requests across the state.
A public information request by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) from the Rowan Board of Elections yielded no tangible communications between Woodhouse and election board members or staff. However, Collins reported in an email to SCSJ that he spoke with Woodhouse five times with no notes kept on the conversations. He said in the email that the calls “centered around wanting to make sure there were enough early voting sites open during the early voting period.”
Collins maintained that no emails were received from Woodhouse when responding to Medina in the special meeting. Medina emphasized that she hopes decisions are not being made based on outside pressure or personal opinions. Before the final vote was taken, Wright expressed frustration that Hewitt and Medina were able to speak on the issue while she was not.
Ultimately, the vote was split 3–2, with Wright abstaining and Medina in opposition to the plan. The board has until July 24 to come to a unanimous decision before the issue will officially go to the state Board of Elections, according to Main. Collins’ initial reaction was disappointment.
“I was very disappointed that two of the members did not honor the compromise agreement we had reached during our mediation,” Collins said.
Wright still hopes that the board can come to a consensus.
“Nobody gets all that they want, but I think that five people serving on the board, no matter their political persuasion, should be able to compromise,” Wright said. “I’m hoping that we can have a coming together to compromise and make a decision that’s best for the citizens of Rowan County.”
Public attendee response
Most if not all of the public attendees were in support of longer early voting periods and gathered after the meeting to talk about next steps. Some expressed disappointment with how the meeting was handled and the goals of the board.
“We’re supposed to be reasoning our way as to what’s best for the county. That’s the point of this. It’s not supposed to be a power play. It’s supposed to be people putting their minds together, objectively. It doesn’t mean they won’t disagree. That goes without saying that they will, but working through the disagreement,” Seth Holtzman said.
Some attendees expressed frustration with the partisan influence of the decision on early voting plans.
“It’s not a party issue. It’s not a Republican issue. It’s not a Democratic issue. It’s not a right issue. It’s not a left issue. This is an American issue of basic voting rights. So I hope that the people of Rowan County will pay attention to this regardless of their party because the vote crosses all of them. As we all know, many people died so that we have a choice,” Sheila Womack said.
Some expressed dissatisfaction with the entire process allowing the board to decide early voting days for elections.
“Weekends are important. That’s the time families come out. That’s the time churches come out. That’s the time we get all the colleges to come out. That is the time where most people vote. I don’t know why we have to do this every time we want to vote. I don’t understand why we constantly have to come in to beg to vote,” Kristen Stauffer said.
With no compromise reached by the Board of Elections, the issue will likely go to the state board with representatives for each plan. According to Collins and Hewitt, the plans proposed to the state will revert back to the 13-day and 15-day plans rather than the compromised 14-day plan.
