Reprinted from Wilkes Journal Patriot - story by Jule Hubbard - Aug 3rd, 2018

The Wilkes County Board of Elections has decided to provide two satellite one-stop, early voting sites in the county this fall after opting for four satellite sites for the general elections in 2016 and 2014 and three in 2010.

The four-member board on Tuesday morning approved a one-stop, early voting plan with satellite sites at the Pleasant Hill and Millers Creek fire stations for this year’s non-presidential general election. The plan now goes to the N.C. Board of Elections for approval.

The Millers Creek Fire Station by far has had the largest one-stop, early voting turnout in the past, while the Pleasant Hill and Mulberry-Fairplains fire stations have ranked second with similar turnouts. Wilkes Board of Elections Director Kim Caudill said the Millers Creek and Pleasant Hill fire stations were also chosen because Millers Creek is in the western end of Wilkes and Pleasant Hill is in the eastern end.
The Mountain View Ruritan Club building was also a satellite site in 2016 and 2014.

The two satellite sites are in addition to a required site at a central location, which for Wilkes is the county commissioners’ meeting room on the first floor of the Wilkes County Office Building in Wilkesboro.

Voter turnout in 2014 (the last non-presidential general election) included Millers Creek Fire Station, 745; Mulberry-Fairplains Fire Station, 377; Pleasant Hill Fire Station, 334; and Mountain View Ruritan Club building, 198. The total at the Wilkes County Office Building in 2014 was 3,582.

Under a state law enacted earlier this year, each county must provide one-stop, early voting at a central location for 13 weekdays from Oct. 17 through Nov. 2, plus Saturday, Nov. 3. Weekdays hours at this one mandatory site per county must be either 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The Wilkes Board of Elections opted to have weekday hours in the county commissioners’ meeting room on the first floor of the Wilkes County Office Building be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 17 to Nov. 2.

Counties have the option of providing as many one-stop, early voting satellite sites as they wish—or none. If they do provide satellite sites, they must open all 13 weekdays (Oct. 17 through Nov. 2), with weekday hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The law requires being open at least from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3, with an option to extend hours until 5 p.m. Hours for the four Wilkes sites on Nov. 3 will be 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Having to be open all 13 weekdays and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. greatly increased the cost of satellite sites for counties that opt to provide them. In the last three general elections, Wilkes County’s three or four satellite sites were only open four or five days and had considerably shorter hours each day.

Wilkes Board of Elections Chairman Tim Joines asked Caudill about her level of comfort with the plan approved at the meeting.

“I feel pretty good about it. I believe we can handle it, particularly since it isn’t a presidential year,” she responded.

Board member Garland Hill asked Caudill if she believed enough backup workers had been secured for one-stop, early voting and Caudill answered affirmatively. Hill then made a motion to approve the plan and his motion was unanimously approved.

Caudill said the board considered the increased cost of satellite sites and past voter turnout in deciding how many satellite sites to provide. She said it had been hard for Wilkes Board of Election staff to find enough people to man satellite sites due to the additional days and longer hours.

Caudill said the county’s costs for one-stop, early voting costs this year would include a little over $6,000 per satellite site, compared to about $1,300 per satellite site last year due to the additional and longer days. She said the Wilkes Board of Elections should still have enough money in its budget to cover this.

She said 15-16 people have been signed up to work at satellite sites this year, which she said is enough for three to four people per site at any given time under the approved plan.

Fulltime Wilkes Board of Elections staff and regular poll workers would man the site in the county commissioners’ meeting room, with two to three workers there most of the time and more in busier periods, Caudill added.

The plan calls for poll workers secured for the satellite site in Millers Creek to work in two shifts, with one group working on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday and another group working on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

At the satellite site in Pleasant Hill, the plan calls for some people to work only half days and others to work full days.

Caudill said there may be “floaters” available to work on an as-needed basis at both sites.
Wilkes Board of Elections member Lynn Day asked Caudill if the same one-stop, early voting plan would be used for the presidential election in 2020.

Caudill said that depended on whether the legislature made more changes in state election laws. “It’s always subject to change,” she added.

Some critics of the new law requiring that all satellite sites be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. all 13 weekdays Oct. 17 to Nov. 2 if a county opted to provide satellite sites have said this was done to reduce voter turnout.
Legislators who supported the new law said the goal was ensuring uniformity to avoid confusion they said has occurred when satellite sites within a single county had differing hours. Satellite sites in Wilkes have all had the same hours in the past.

In addition to the one-stop, early voting dates in the plan approved Tuesday, key voter dates for this year’s election include:

• Sept. 7, first day voters can be mailed an absentee ballot. These are available from the Wilkes Board of Elections;
• Oct. 12, voter registration forms for voting on Nov. 6 (election day) due by 5 p.m. at Wilkes Board of Elections;
• Oct. 30, last day to request an absentee ballot by mail;
• Nov. 5, last day for a military/overseas absentee ballot request;
• Nov. 6, Election Day;
• Nov. 9, last day to turn in absentee ballots by mail (must be postmarked by Election Day);
• Nov. 15, last day to receive military/overseas absentee ballots (mailed).

Caudill said new vote tabulators, which the county commissioners agreed to fund in the 2018-19 budget, won’t be purchased in time for voting this October and November.

3rd Vice Chair of the Wilkes Democratic Party, Michael Cooper, went on UNC-TV's "First In Future" to speak on small town politics and how to keep young people engaged in the towns in which they grew up. ​

​"Never be surprised by what they do. Be ready."
 
It's a phrase I heard often from my Dad while growing up. It's pessimistic and dark, sure,…but that's what being a 4th generation Democrat in Wilkes County breeds within you.
 
Times when you have the thought, "Nah, even the GOP wouldn't do something so crazy, reckless, or self-serving," and you are tempted to give them the benefit of the doubt, is when it most applies. We should be applying it to everything happening right now, because we're about to see a power grab that is unprecedented in our lifetimes. 

It is also why organizing is so important right now. Democrats must identify as such in Wilkes. There are many more of us than most people realize, and we tend to isolate ourselves with little formal contact under that heading. But Wilkes County has only 1/2 of its Democrat precincts organized in this county. All it takes is 4 registered Dems to do it, and it can mean gaining a voice during these difficult days ahead. We won't be shouting into the void.

Watauga County turned blue this election. If they can do it, we can too,...but it'll take every Democrat's participation with the party. We simply don't have enough dedicated Dems in this county that are willing to do the work right now. We go back to the same handful of volunteers to do so much, that they're getting burned out and tired. The same few people did all the calling, canvassing, e-mailing and sign planting in this last election. We need fresh bodies with energy and passion. 

We have outlets for our voice that we've never had before. We have this blog, we have Facebook, we have Twitter,...we have platforms from which to shout and share. But we need you. We need you to go to Board of Education meetings and speak out when our students aren't put first, we need you to go to town meetings, and planning board meetings and County Commissioner meetings to keep track of the dealings happening under our noses. We need people to help Dems fundraise so we can have an HQ year round and visibility for those that move here. 

We are not apathetic. I know this. It's just such a daunting task for each us us that we don't know where to start. So just start with something. One thing. Come to the next Wilkes Democrats meeting December 13th at 6pm at Benton Hall in North Wilkesboro. Get organized FIRST. Then, write a piece for this very blog. Like and Share us on Facebook. Volunteer to call our legislators,...again and again. Help be a watchdog at local meetings for abuses of power. And most importantly, don't be afraid to be a Democrat in Wilkes County. Be ready.