Photo: Voting rights advocates show up for the Guilford Board of Elections meeting on July 21, 2026.
RALEIGH, N.C. (Aug. 14, 2026) — Behind closed doors and away from public meetings, county election officials across North Carolina were reportedly being pressured to cut early voting hours and sites, not by their own boards’ judgment, but by an office with no legal authority over those decisions. The results of that pressure campaign are now before the State Board of Elections.
Twenty counties have submitted non-unanimous early voting plans for the 2026 General Election — nearly double the number submitted in 2024 — which will be decided upon by the State Board at its Aug. 20 meeting. Fourteen of those plans cut or eliminate Sunday voting hours entirely, and several others center on disputes over replacing or removing popular past early voting sites.
Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) sent a letter to the State Board today urging members to reject these plans and investigate whether the North Carolina State Auditor’s office improperly influenced county-level decisions.
According to public records and news reporting, staff in the Auditor’s office, including former election liaison Dallas Woodhouse, pushed county board members toward specific cuts, including urging counties to “drop Sundays” wherever possible. He reportedly kept these communications on his personal cellphone and later deleted them, despite instructions from the State Auditor’s own legal counsel to preserve them.
If the State Board approves plans cutting or eliminating Sunday voting hours, it will not only carry a taint of impropriety, but it will have a disproportionate impact on Black voters. In the 2022 General Election, Black voters cast nearly a quarter of all Sunday ballots statewide despite making up about 20% of registered voters, and in the 20 non-unanimous counties now under the State Board’s consideration, that share climbs to nearly 31%.
“As this State Board is certainly aware, prior efforts to cut Sunday voting in North Carolina have been struck down in federal court as unconstitutional because of the disparate impact those cuts have on Black voters who disproportionately use Sunday voting and often build voter engagement activities — like “souls-to-the-polls” events — around the availability of Sunday early voting hours,” the letter states.
The letter details specific disputes in five counties. In Granville County, the majority plan would close the two most-used early voting sites, which have accounted for nearly 70% of all early voting there over the past decade. In Guilford County, the majority plan would eliminate the early voting site at NC A&T, an HBCU, and relocate the UNC-Greensboro site off campus. In Columbus County, the board initially proposed cutting five sites down to one before backing off after public outcry. Pasquotank and Rowan counties both face proposed cuts to Sunday and weekend voting hours despite data showing strong voter turnout during those hours. In Pasquotank, Woodhouse specifically told officials there to “drop Sunday,” and they did, according to the letter.
“Early voting plans should reflect what voters need, not backroom pressure from an office that has no business making these decisions,” said Jeff Loperfido, Chief Counsel for Voting Rights at SCSJ. “The State Board has both the authority and the obligation to reject any plan shaped by that kind of improper influence.”
SCSJ developed recommendations in consultation with local community members to provide counties and the State Board data-backed alternatives that protect equal ballot access and is urging scrutiny of every county’s plan, not just the ones named in the letter. The State Board is legally required to exercise its authority independently of the State Auditor and to reject any plan that disproportionately favors or disfavors any racial or ethnic group, according to the letter.
Early voting in North Carolina begins Oct. 15.
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@scsjofficial #NCAT students making their voices heard! #aggiepride💙💛 #votingrights #earlyvoting ♬ original sound – SCSJ
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Southern Coalition for Social Justice came together in 2007 to give Black, Brown, and low-income people better resources in the fight for justice across the South. We are lawyers, social scientists, and communications professionals working to dismantle racism and oppression in the criminal legal system, in our environment, and at the ballot box. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our work on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.