The N.C. Board of Elections has decided to uphold a disputed, local decision to have Burlington’s Kernodle Center serve as one of the county’s three early voting locations for this year’s primaries.
During a meeting in Raleigh on Tuesday, the GOP-dominated state board voted 3-to-2 to confirm the senior center’s selection over an alternative site on Elon University’s campus, which had been the favorite of Democrats.
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Last month, the county’s own board of elections rendered the same split verdict in favor of the senior center. In both cases, these votes broke down strictly along party lines, with the three Republicans on each board overruling the preference of their two Democratic colleagues for the campus location.
Under state law, a local decision that isn’t unanimous must be bumped up to Raleigh for the state board to evaluate. The split vote in favor of the senior center was the only ruling to demand this treatment in Alamance County, whose board of elections was otherwise united in their dispositions for the upcoming primaries on March 3.
With the state’s confirmation of the local board’s choice, the county’s elections office has added the senior center 1535 South Mebane Street to its roster of early voting locations ahead of the primary. Democrats on the local board had wanted the south gym on the Elon University campus, rather than the Burlington site.
The other two sites, which had the local board’s unanimous imprimatur, are the Graham rec center at 311 College Street and the Mebane Arts and Community Center at 633 Corregidor Drive. The local board agreed to both of those locations unanimously.
