From State Director of Common Cause, Sailor Jones: “Rowan voters’ cynicism reflects the same crisis of confidence in local leadership we’re seeing elsewhere since major shifts in election administration at the state level.“

“Chillingly dysfunctional, a demonstration of how democracy dies, Rowan County deserves better.” These are just a few of the ways Rowan residents described the county’s June 10 board of elections meeting in this week’s Salisbury Post.

Their letters to the Post echo the sentiments of dozens who packed the monthly meeting to speak in favor of Republicans and Democrats on the board agreeing to early voting options for 2026 that have historically worked for the county.

Ignoring the public’s suggestions, Republicans opted instead for a plan with only 13-days of the 17 allowed — making the mandatory last Saturday (Oct. 31) the only weekend option for voters this fall. Democrats asked for at least the same number of days available during the last midterm election in 2022 — 15, including two Saturdays and one Sunday. According to voters in attendance, this request ultimately fell on deaf ears.

Without a bipartisan county compromise, the GOP-led State Board of Elections gets to decide Rowan County’s 2026 voting plan, which appeared to be the goal of at least one local elections board member. Despite being appointed to serve local voters and not state interests, Republican Member John Leatherman refused to compromise on the county plan, saying Rowan’s voting options should be the state’s decision.

Yet, if this state board majority votes on local, nonunanimous early voting plans for the 2026 primary are any guide — ones that consistently favored plans with fewer options— the move (or failure to move) by Member Leatherman almost guarantees cuts in Rowan.

Rowan voters’ cynicism reflects the same crisis of confidence in local leadership we’re seeing elsewhere since major shifts in election administration at the state level.

For nearly 125 years, North Carolina’s governor appointed state BOE members and county BOE chairs. But a lame duck General Assembly had other plans. In 2024, they used a craven proposal couched as ‘Hurricane Helene disaster relief’ to ram through changes that would strip Democratic Gov. Josh Stein of his elections powers and handed them to Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek, the only auditor in the country to have them.

Boliek has since come under fire for several controversial moves, including pressuring local leaders to approve early voting options that work best for his party.

In Cabarrus County, public records requests revealed that Boliek’s office had leaned on the elections director there to add a site that could better serve GOP voters. And out west in Jackson County, it was Republican board of elections members like Jay Pavey who sounded the alarm, stating publicly that Boliek threatened to remove them from the board if they did not cut Western Carolina University’s campus site.

WCU political scientist Dr. Chris Cooper wrote in his June 11 post, (“Who Decides Where We Vote? The Jackson County Early Voting Controversy Explained”) that “although Jackson County may be receiving most of the headlines at the moment, it likely won’t be the last county whose decisions on early voting sites generate controversy and headlines.”

Which leads us back to Rowan.

When Mr. Leatheman seemed to say out of nowhere that the state should decide Rowan County’s early voting plans, was he signaling to everyone who would listen that he too had been asked to do their bidding?

Being a local elections official is no easy task. Maybe Mr. Leatherman’s controversial statements are as coincidental as the auditor’s demands in Cabarrus and Jackson are isolated. As in other N.C. counties considering inexplicable election cuts without a paper trail or whistleblower leading back to Boliek, Rowan voters may always suspect, yet never know.

But thanks to outspoken Republicans and Democrats coming together in Jackson to push back against undue pressure from the state auditor, what we do know is that at least some North Carolinians are willing to put politics aside to do what’s right for their people.

In fact, Jackson’s Jay Pavey recently had some choice words for anyone who would pressure him to vote against options that work for his community.

“I’d probably tell him to kiss my a**,” the Republican told the Smoky Mountain News. “When I walk out of here, I’m going to walk out of here with my head held high, because I know that I have voted for what I think is the best thing for the residents of Jackson County.”

Rowan County deserves the same.