Buncombe rolls back early voting hours, gets criticism
ASHEVILLE — The Buncombe County Board of Elections wants to reduce early voting hours ahead of the 2016 primary by nearly 40 percent from four years ago, prompting concern by the local branch of the NAACP that problems will result.
The March 15 primary will be the first election in which a new state law requiring voters to have a photo identification except in hardship cases will be in effect.
A statement from Asheville-Buncombe Branch of the NAACP suggests the photo ID requirement and shorter hours together "will cause unnecessary delays and discourage voter participation."
But two county Board of Elections members say it was inevitable under state law that the number of hours available for early voting would decrease and that they do not expect problems. Buncombe sites were open a total of 1,287 hours for the 2012 primary, which election officials say was easily the most of any county in the state. The new figure would be 791 hours, 38.5 percent less.
Figures compiled by board staff say that even if the number of early voters in next year's primary jumps by a third over 2012, the average number of votes cast at early voting sites will be only 3.4 per hour under the reduced opening times the county board has approved.
Board member George Keller was a poll worker at an early voting site in 2012 and said new arrangements should be sufficient to handle voter flow in March.
"There were some awfully, awfully quiet days" at early voting locations in 2012, he said.
A state law passed in 2013 reduced the early voting period from 17 to 10 days before an election. But, it provides that county election boards cannot reduce the total number of hours early voting sites are open without a unanimous vote by the county board and an OK from the State Board of Elections.
The Buncombe board, composed of two Republicans and one Democrat, voted 3-0 just before Thanksgiving to seek the reduction. The state board has yet to act on the request.
Democratic board member Lucy Smith said she hopes there won't be problems "and everything will go smoothly."
Jake Quinn, a local Democratic Party activist and NAACP member, said he expected early voting hours to contract. To keep the total the same would have required the county to dramatically increase the number of early voting sites, currently 11, or significantly extend site hours.
But he said the requested cut is too much.
"I would like to see (officials) err on the side of making it easy for folks," Quinn said.
Keller, Quinn and Elections Supervisor Trena Parker said Buncombe had early voting sites open for far more hours than any other county in the state in 2012. Sites will still be open this year for longer than in some counties with two to roughly four times Buncombe's population, Parker said.
"We're still way above the norm," she said. "I really believe we can serve voters well with 11 sites."