I was just contacted by a good friend in Granville County about what is turning into, at best a problem, but most likely IMO, a concerted effort to supress Democrats from voting in Granville County [North Carolina]. From her message:

They opened the doors at 6:30 and we were 4th and 5th in line at the A-H table. There was a problem with the first guy in line. They got him out of line and I don't know where he went. I think they got him a provisional ballot. The next lady's name was on the list and she voted.

However, they couldn't find person #3's name in the book either. She was upset because she has been a registered voter in Granville County for many years. Next-my turn. My name is not there. Neither is ******* nor *******. WTF? I also told the lady that I have been registered to vote in Granville County for 14 years AND have voted in every election. I know this because I looked it up when you gave me the sample ballot webpage! WTF?

They gave me a provisional ballot but I didn't have time to vote with it because all the booths were full and I had to get to work!! But, as I'm leaving, I hear the lady at the A-H book tell the man running the precinct that the book might as well be thrown out because out of 15 people, only 3 have had their names listed.

OK. I am seething and I want an explanation!!! WTF is up here? I don't know what to do or who to call. I did notice the book with the names in it was more than half the size it was the last time I voted - and very strange since the lower half of Granville County has grown expeonentially since 2004. I know of about 600 new homes within 5 miles of my house. Something stinks!

From talking with Don Wright, attorney at the State Board of Elections, it appears that Granville County has a problem in some precincts where people's names have not been included on the printout of the poll book. This is because the county's 911 system hasn't correlated hundreds of addresses to a GIS coordinate, and the GIS coordinate is what the state elections database system uses to assign voters to the correct precinct. So active voters, particularly with a Hwy 96 or Hwy 56 addresses, did not getting [sic] a precinct assigned to them in the voter registration database. When the county goes to print the pollbooks, precinct by precinct, these voters names don't get printed on any precinct's books.

I've looked at database now and there are roughly 600 voters in this situation. The county could print out all these names with addresses and give a list to every polling place. Or give every polling place a laptop with a file of all registered voters in the county on it, so the official can look up voter by name and confirm they live at address. They may still have trouble associated them with the precinct.

Bottom line: All these voters should vote with a provisional ballot, even though it's a headache, and that ballot should definitely count.

Democracy North Carolina has an lawyer who try to help with problems today: Beth Jacobs at 919-286-6000 ext 18 OR call the national Election Protecton hotline 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Bob Hall
Democracy North Carolina