The Jackson County Board of Elections (BOE) failed to reach a unanimous agreement on early voting site locations for the 2026 general election. That means the North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) will make that determination by August.
There are two competing plans, each with four early voting sites, one fewer than used in recent general elections. The majority plan, which received three votes at the Jackson County BOE, calls for not using the Cullowhee Recreation Center. The minority plan (one vote) would not use a location on Western Carolina University’s (WCU) campus, which is also in Cullowhee.
During the Jackson BOE meeting, board Chair Bill Thompson said he had received “pressure from above” and had been “asked to” vote for the rec center site by someone from the Office of the State Auditor (OSA). He was the lone vote for that site. OSA spokesperson, Randy Brechbiel, characterized those talks differently:
There has been concern expressed over the elimination of the rec center site, which has been used for nearly 20 years, and has been one of the most utilized sites in the county. Ultimately, these decisions are made by local boards and the state board.
So, which of those plans is superior?
Comparing the competing early voting sites
Jackson County has used the Cullowhee Rec Center as an early voting site since 2008 and a site on the WCU campus since 2016. There have been two midterm general elections in which Jackson County has used both sites: 2018 and 2022. In both elections, more voters used the rec center site.
In the 2022 midterm election, there were 1,704 ballots counted at the Cullowhee Rec Center site and 1,097 at the WCU site.
Four years earlier, in the 2018 midterm, 1,832 ballots were counted at the Collowhee Rec Center compared to 1,354 at the WCU site.
So, from a pure numbers standpoint, the Cullowhee Recreation Center is superior to the WCU campus as an early voting site.
There is more to selecting an early voting site than numbers, however. If it were just about the numbers, the county board could agree to close the Qualla Community Building site.
That will not happen because that location serves the northern portion of the county, which would otherwise not have a voting site. In addition, as the name implies, that site is within the Qualla Boundary, a land trust for the Eastern Band of Cherokee. According to data from the John Locke Foundation’s Vote Tracker, a fifth of all votes at the Qualla site were cast by American Indians. For those reasons, closing the Qualla site is politically infeasible.
The Cashiers Recreation Center similarly serves southern Jackson County.
The two Cullowhee sites have also primarily served different communities, with the WCU serving students (and others associated with the university), and the rec center serving permanent Jackson County residents.
Jackson County has reduced its number of early voting sites before. It has six sites in 2024, but has used five since, with no apparent ill effect.
The WCU site was not used in the 2026 primary. Despite that, the number of early votes in the county climbed from 3,285 in the 2022 midterm primary to 3,733 in 2026. As expected, the portion of early voters who used the rec center increased from 24.3 percent in 2022 to 30.5 percent in 2026. That accounts for most of the 7.6 percent of Jackson County early voters who used the WCU site in 2022 (the 2022 primary early voting period coincided with finals at WCU, which may have depressed student turnout).
During early voting, WCU ran shuttle buses to the rec center. One group of about 50 students even organized a walk to the rec center to cast their votes. The rec center was accessible to WCU students.
So, the available evidence indicates that if Jackson County has only one early voting site in Cullowhee, the rec center is the superior choice.
Why not both?
Under North Carolina election law (GS 163-166.35), the SBE determines early voting sites in counties where the county boards could not reach a unanimous agreement. They may consider the majority and minority plans from the county board, but they can also choose to adopt their own plan for the county.
That happened last January, when the State Board adopted a plan for Madison County for the March primary election. The majority plan called for early voting at one location, the Madison Campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College (in lieu of the county Board of Elections office). The minority plan included the Madison site and additional sites in Hot Springs and Mars Hill.
(All early voting plans must include a site at the county board of elections office or a nearby alternative location.)
During the discussion at the SBE’s January 13 meeting, Madison County BOE Chair Dyatt Smathers noted one reason counties may want to reduce the number of early voting sites: to conserve election administration funds.
In 2022 in Madison County, we voted 1,391 voters and if you do the math with that number of voters Madison County spent $34.45 for each one of those votes. Had we had just one early voting site instead of three, we would’ve spent $5.25, a much more reasonable sum.
The SBE ended up adding a second site that was not in either plan:
State board members raised concerns about drive-time accessibility, so [State Board member Stacy] Eggers IV asked Smathers whether another site could be added.
“ I would put it in where the population is heaviest and that would be toward Beech Glen (Community Center),” Smathers said. “We have an adequate facility there and plenty of parking and a big gymnasium to vote in.”
The state board amended the county plans to include the Beech Glen Community Center, leaving Madison County with two early voting sites.
If the State Board can add an alternative site on the fly in Madison County, it can certainly decide to use both of the sites in Colluwhee for the upcoming general election. Following the SBE’s decision not to use the WCU site in the March primary, this could establish a new pattern of using only the Cullowhee Rec Center for primaries and both Cullowhee sites for general elections.
Like most compromises, it would likely satisfy no one but is the best option available.
