RALEIGH — During the State Board of Elections’ meeting Tuesday, two hotly contested issues, student voting and involvement, were decided in an overflowing boardroom.
The board voted unanimously to allow Montravias King, a senior at Elizabeth City State University, to run for city council with his on-campus residence hall address. They also voted 4-1 to uphold the elimination of a one-stop early voting site on Appalachian State University’s campus for the upcoming municipal election.
The crowd’s reaction to the two decisions contrasted sharply. When the board moved to uphold King’s candidacy, the crowded boardroom erupted in applause.
“Justice has prevailed,” King said in a press conference immediately after the vote, adding that he was not surprised by the decision. “This is a great day for students, not only at Elizabeth City State University, but for students across North Carolina.”
But the mood sobered later in the afternoon when board members decided that the town of Boone didn’t need two one-stop early voting sites for the town’s municipal elections. The Watauga County Board of Elections had decided last month to cut the early voting site on the campus of ASU in favor of a downtown location with just 11 parking spaces.
Watauga County Board of Elections member Kathleen Campbell, the sole Democrat on the board, said students would have a hard time getting to the new early voting site, and it would depress turnout.
“It’s a statewide obvious thing — they don’t want students to vote,” Campbell said in a passionate speech to the state board.
State board member Maja Kricker, the lone vote for reinstating the site on campus, agreed that the site should be kept open in the interest of fair elections, especially in light of challenges across the state to student voters.
But other members disagreed, stressing that the elimination did not mean student voters couldn’t cast ballots.
