News

Legislature orders county to open three more early voting sites

By Amy McCraw, Published: October 25, 2024

Forced by the N.C. Legislature to reverse course on its decision to drop three early voting sites, the Henderson County Board of Elections will hold an emergency meeting today to approve more early voting locations.

The decision came after lawmakers enacted a bill that requires the expansion of early voting in Henderson County and certain other counties impacted by Hurricane Helene. The bill requires those counties to operate at least one early voting site for every 30,000 registered voters.
The bill also applies to several other Western North Carolina counties including Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga and Yancey.
The General Assembly passed Senate Bill 132, titled "An Act to Require or Authorize the Addition of Early Voting Sites in Certain Counties for the November 2024 Election," on Thursday afternoon.
Clay Eddleman, the Democratic chair of the county Board of Elections, called the emergency meeting of the board shortly after the bill passed.
The bill requires that no later than Tuesday, Oct. 29, and through Saturday, Nov. 2, the counties named in the bill provide at least one early voting site for every 30,000 registered voters. The Board of Elections will meet at 9 a.m. Friday at the elections office at 75 E. Central St. to take up the process.
“If the county board of elections determines its current Plan for Implementation does not provide at least one early voting site for every 30,000 registered voters, or any portion thereof, additional sites shall be added as necessary to meet the required minimum number of early voting site locations,” said the bill, sponsored by Henderson County state Sen. Tim Moffitt.
The Legislature's action came after the county Board of Elections reduced early voting sites from four in previous elections to one this year, drawing criticism from both political parties and some voters.
Voters who turned out for the first day of early voting in Henderson County on Oct. 17 found traffic congestion at the county’s only early voting site at the Board of Elections off Spartanburg Highway. Some voters also said they were unaware of the reduction in voting sites this year and arrived at previous early voting locations to find them empty.

Both political parties slammed the decision to reduce the number of early voting sites.
Bruce Macdonald, an attorney for the Henderson County Democratic Party, first raised the alarm about the reduction in voting sites on Sept. 21, a week before Hurricane Helene.
“At a time when voter suppression is often subtle, but many times not so subtle, and with an upcoming election that is more consequential than perhaps any we have seen, it is hard to understand why the Henderson County Board of Elections made this decision,” Macdonald said in an email. “With a county this large and a population of 119,000, you maintain or increase — not eliminate — early-voting sites.”
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, the former chair of the N.C. GOP, issued a statement that blamed the decision on Democrats, even though the two Republicans on the county Elections Board voted in favor of the change.
“This blatant election interference by North Carolina Democrats will not be tolerated, and we are demanding they expand voting sites immediately,” he said. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the county should be adding voting sites, not eliminating them, the RNC said on Oct. 17.