The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 3-2 along party lines Tuesday to close the early voting site on Western Carolina University’s campus for the 2026 primaries.
Early voting sites will instead be consolidated into a single location at the Jackson County Recreation Center in Cullowhee.
The board’s new Republican majority approved early voting plans from 12 counties where county election boards could not reach unanimous agreement. WCU was one of five colleges that the BOE voted to eliminate as an early voting site.
Chris Cooper, a professor of political science and public affairs at WCU, said the decisions were not surprising.
“All 100 counties have majority Republican control,” Cooper told BPR. “The State Board of Elections, of course, has majority Republican control. I think the expectation across all 12 of these counties is that the state board would go with the majority plan.”
The decision landed in the hands of the state after the Jackson County Board of Elections voted in December to remove the early voting site at WCU by a 3-2 vote.
Under state law, any county that does not approve its early voting plan unanimously must have that plan reviewed by the State Board of Elections.
The WCU precinct has been home to one of two early voting sites in Cullowhee since 2016 when a Republican majority approved a plan that placed an early voting site on campus.
It served as the polling place for more than 76,000 voters over five general elections and four primaries. During its time on campus, the university has provided the room, IT support, overhead costs, and dedicated parking spaces.
At Tuesday’s state board meeting, members listened to three different prospective plans by Jackson County Republican Board Chair Bill Thompson and Democratic members Betsy Swift and Roy Osborn.
Thompson, who proposed the majority plan, defended consolidating the sites, arguing the campus location was inaccessible to some voters and unnecessarily costly, citing estimates of $20,000.
“ My Democrat colleagues have commented that moving the one-stop site from the campus of WCU is suppression or disenfranchisement of student voters,” Thompson said. “ I would remind everyone when we talk about students, we're not talking about kindergarteners who need help tying their shoes and opening their milk cartons. We're talking about adults who are seeking their post-secondary education. I'm confident that college students are capable of getting themselves six-tenths of a mile from the edge of campus to the Cullowhee Rec. Center to vote.”
Thompson said he considered additional sites but only the parks and recreation center met all the requirements.
“This site has parking, easy entry, is a well-known location, has ample space for electioneering and is also a polling place on Election Day,” Thompson said.
The Democrats proposed two plans. The first would have kept the same five early voting sites used in recent election cycles. The other would have consolidated Cullowhee’s two sites into one but would have placed it at the Health and Human Sciences Building on the edge of WCU’s campus.
Democrat Betsy Swift disputed Thompson’s claims about expenses, saying he did not back it up with any data or evidence.
“Eliminating this site would not meaningfully reduce costs, but the impact would significantly reduce access for a predominantly young, rural population,” Swift said.
She added that staffing costs are driven largely by the number of voters expected rather than the number of sites, estimating the county would save closer to $6,000 rather than the $20,000 projected by Republican members of the county board.
Director of elections for Jackson County Amanda Allen was also present at the meeting on Tuesday. She said that although her department has proven it can hold an election anywhere, she still had concerns about the Rec Center’s size.
“ That site will be the smallest early voting location we have in our other three if we are to consolidate, and it'll be serving the largest precinct,” Allen said.
After much heated debate over parking spaces on the campus, the state board voted to adopt the GOP plan.
State Republican Chair Francis X. De Luca ,Stacy “Four” Eggers IV and Robert Rucho all voted in favor. Democrats Siobhan O’Duffy Millen and Jeff Carmon voted against it.
“To the students, sorry,” Carmon said.
MADISON COUNTY
The State Board of Elections also voted unanimously on Tuesday for their own plan to keep two early voting sites open in Madison County for the upcoming 2026 primaries.
The decision came before the state board after the Madison County Board of Elections voted to close two of the county’s three early voting precincts in October, arguing the move would save money.
Madison County Board Chair Dyatt Smathers proposed the majority plan. It would close precinct sites in Hot Springs and Mars Hill while keeping open the Madison County branch of Asheville-Buncombe Technical College in Marshall.
“ In 2022 in Madison County, we voted 1,391 voters and if you do the math with that number of voters Madison County spent $34.45 for each one of those votes,” Smathers said. “ Had we had just one early voting site instead of three, we would've spent $5.25 a much more reasonable sum.”
County Board Secretary Brian Ball countered those claims while presenting his plan which would have kept all three sites open, including the Mars Hill Public Library and the Hot Springs Senior Center.
“Madison County is large, rural and mountainous,” Ball said. “Reducing early voting from three sites to one would require many voters to travel substantially further, often outside their immediate community, to access early voting, creating a predictable hardship for voters with transportation constraints, time-limited work and caregiving schedules.”
State board members raised concerns about drive-time accessibility, so Eggers IV asked Smathers whether another site could be added.
“ I would put it in where the population is heaviest and that would be toward Beech Glen (Community Center),” Smathers said. “We have an adequate facility there and plenty of parking and a big gymnasium to vote in.”
The state board amended the county plans to include the Beech Glen Community Center, leaving Madison County with two early voting sites.
WCU professor Cooper said the decision surprised him.
“At that point, we were a few hours into watching plan after plan, people making arguments, and the state board said, ‘Hey, we’re going with the majority,’” Cooper said. “So Madison was a notable exception and maybe the only surprise all day.”
Cooper added that Tuesday’s vote applies only to the upcoming primary, and said similar debates are likely ahead for the general election later this year.
