{"id":1635,"date":"2026-06-03T16:35:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T16:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1635"},"modified":"2026-06-03T16:35:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T16:35:57","slug":"republican-officials-say-gop-and-auditor-pressured-them-to-reject-campus-voting-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1635","title":{"rendered":"Republican officials say GOP and auditor pressured them to reject campus voting site"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n

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Republican election officials in Jackson County said they\u2019d been pressured by their own party and the state auditor\u2019s office to reject a plan for an early voting site on Western Carolina University\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve been told that if I don\u2019t vote a particular way, that they will do whatever they have to do to remove me from the board,\u201d Republican board member Jay Pavey said.<\/p>\n

The comments came during a stunning board meeting on Tuesday morning in which Pavey sided with the board\u2019s Democratic minority to approve the contested polling site for use in the midterm elections this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that I\u2019m bucking my party by this, and I may very well be a one-term person on the board of elections, but if that\u2019s it, that\u2019s fine,\u201d he said. \u201cI will stand on this hill and I will die on this hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s meeting also followed the unexpected resignation of one of the board\u2019s Republican members.<\/p>\n

Influence NC, which describes itself as a \u201cPro-Democracy organization,\u201d first posted audio clips from the meeting on Tuesday on social media. The News & Observer has since obtained a full recording of the meeting.<\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s meeting, board Chair Bill Thompson also referenced \u201cpressure from above,\u201d though he ultimately cast the sole vote against the WCU site.<\/p>\n

In a heated exchange, Democratic member Roy Osborn pressed Thompson on his motivation for choosing a site at a local recreation center instead of the WCU location.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to stand up and say this is a mandate from the auditor\u2019s office,\u201d Osborn said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will state that,\u201d Thompson responded. \u201cLet\u2019s get it out \u2014 let\u2019s get it out in the open and on the record: I\u2019m gonna vote for the rec center. Period. And it will go to Raleigh and I will wash my hands of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to say \u2018I\u2019m gonna vote for the rec center because I\u2019ve been told to by state auditor\u2019s office,\u2019\u201d Osborn repeated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been asked to, and I\u2019m going to,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Tuesday\u2019s vote, Wes Hanemayer, one of the board\u2019s three Republican members, submitted his resignation last week.<\/p>\n

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In his resignation letter, which was obtained by The N&O, Hanemayer said his \u201cmoral position\u201d had been called into question by unnamed entities outside the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is where I draw the line,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIf third parties feel they can demand that I take a completely illogical path, that means they are convinced they have control. With that being a clear conflict of conscience I choose not to be part of the (Jackson County Board of Elections) and submit to their control.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the state auditor\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Matt Mercer, a spokesperson for the NC GOP, did not address the alleged pressure campaign, but said the party was \u201cdeeply committed to ensuring access to early voting locations for all eligible voters, and we are appreciative of the efforts from Auditor Dave Boliek and the state board to maintain clean voter rolls and integrity in the administration of elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

State law requires early voting plans to be unanimous, and Thompson\u2019s vote left the Jackson County board with a 3-1 decision. This means the dispute over WCU\u2019s site now gets kicked up to the State Board of Elections, which will have the final say.<\/p>\n

All election boards in North Carolina currently have a 3-2 Republican majority due to controversial legislation passed in 2024,<\/a> during the waning days of Republicans\u2019 veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature. That legislation stripped incoming Democratic Gov. Josh Stein of his longstanding power to make appointments to election boards and transferred it to the newly elected Republican state auditor, Boliek.<\/p>\n

WCU has hosted an early voting site for nearly a decade, but this is now the second time that the site has rankled election officials since Republicans took control.<\/p>\n

The state board\u2019s Republican majority voted against using the site<\/a> in the March primary elections after the county board failed to reach an agreement on the issue. Students from WCU and two other colleges that were denied early voting sites sued the state board over the decision<\/a>. A judge ruled against them,<\/a> and the election was conducted without the sites in question.<\/p>\n

Since taking office, Boliek has expanded the scope of his authority over elections beyond just making appointments to boards \u2014 as past governors did when they had such power.<\/p>\n

Last year, Boliek hired Dallas Woodhouse<\/a>, former director of the state Republican Party, to fill a newly created role as a liaison between the auditor\u2019s office and county election boards. And in February, Boliek created a commission intended to lead the overhaul of the state\u2019s election management and campaign finance software systems.<\/p>\n

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Jackson County Republicans say party leaders and the state auditor pressured them to reject a long-standing early voting site at Western Carolina University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nRepublican officials say GOP and auditor pressured them to reject campus voting site - Durham Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1635\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Republican officials say GOP and auditor pressured them to reject campus voting site - 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