{"id":317,"date":"2026-06-03T23:06:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=317"},"modified":"2026-06-03T23:06:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:06:42","slug":"a-gop-county-elections-board-member-said-he-was-warned-against-voting-for-a-campus-polling-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=317","title":{"rendered":"A GOP county elections board member said he was warned against voting for a campus polling site"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Republican member of the Jackson County Board of Elections said he was pressured to vote to keep an early voting site off Western Carolina University\u2019s campus this fall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Congress weighs cuts to states\u2019 already \u2018insufficient\u2019 election security dollars<\/a><\/p>\n

That member, Jay Pavey, voted for a plan that included a WCU early voting polling place, despite what he said were threats from his party to remove him from the board if he did.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I\u2019ve been told that if I don\u2019t vote a particular way, that they will, they will do whatever they have to do to remove me from the board,\u201d Pavey said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jackson County Elections Board Chairman Bill Thompson also said he\u2019d been getting \u201cpressure from above\u201d to prevent the campus from hosting an early voting site for the fall election. His was the sole vote against placing a site on the university campus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m probably the lone holdout, and it\u2019s pressure from above,\u201d Thompson said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Republican Party is concerned about university sites because of neutrality, he said. \u201cThey want it to stay off campus,\u201d Thompson said at one point.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The remarkably candid public discussion at Tuesday\u2019s Jackson County Board of Elections meeting laid bare the Republican Party\u2019s interest in preventing WCU from having an early voting site.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pavey said he was voting for the WCU site because it was the best location.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know that I\u2019m bucking my party on this, and I may be a one-term member of the Board of Elections,\u201d he said. \u201cIf that\u2019s it, that\u2019s fine. I will stand on this hill and I will die on this hill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hannah Preston of Influence NC provided NC Newsline with the full audio of the board\u2019s meeting. Influence NC is a nonprofit encouraging political engagement using social media. Members and volunteers also attend state and local board of elections meetings, Preston said. They are monitoring the Jackson and Guilford elections boards because those groups rejected plans that would have opened early voting sites on university campuses for the last primary.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The state Board of Elections reviews local early voting plans that don\u2019t win unanimous approval at the county board level. The state board either picks from competing plans or adopts its own.\u00a0 The state board in January gave final approval to primary election voting plans <\/span>that rejected<\/span> WCU, NC A&T State University, UNC-Greensboro, and Elon University as early voting sites. Republicans hold a 3-2 majority on the state board.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Amid protests, NC elections board rejects campus voting sites and Sunday voting in several counties<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n