Democratic-heavy early voting locations?
Steve Arnold called this afternoon to tell us more on how he feels polling places are slanted toward Democrats.
Some folks have also taken up the conversation online, too. But here's some more Arnold:
"I think the Board of Elections is a partisan board, but if you ask them, they will claim to be completely objective," he said.
County's Republican and Democratic parties appoint a member to the board, and the party of the chairperson is dictated by the party of the governor. So, for this board, it's two-to-one Democrats to Republicans.
"They have purposely chosen early voting locations in mainly very Democratic locations," he said.
By and large, Guilford County is a mainly Democratic location - about 50 percent of its voters are registered Democrats, compared to about a third registered Republican.
Arnold said he believes that one reason Democrats tend to dominate the county's elections - for example, the 11-member board of commissioners has just four Republicans on it - is because early voting keeps getting backed up earlier, and more places are in the midst of Democratic strongholds.
We did a quick analysis of precincts around the early voting locations, and overall, they tend to reflect the makeup of county registrations.
And the longer voting term doesn't sit will with him, either.
"I move farther and farther away from appreciating the value of early voting," he said, proposing a shorter term closer to election instead.
"I would pick about three very public places and let that be that," he said.
Comments (4)
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Did Stevie really talk about farts as in your
next to last paragraph above ?
Posted on October 2, 2008 9:06 AM
Naw, I think an "h" belongs in there, somewhere. Thanks for your close reading.
Posted on October 2, 2008 10:00 AM
Don't forget to review the ballot. It is real fair ...
to Democrats
Posted on October 7, 2008 8:38 AM
The Republicans are gonna get their proverbial backsides profoundly kicked in November. They know it. This is just sour grapes!
Obama in '08!!!!
Posted on October 9, 2008 10:16 AM