Nathan Tabor, the Forsyth County Republican Party chairman, is calling on the local elections board to revoke Winston-Salem State University as an early-voting site in response to the university’s handling of an e-mail promoting Democratic candidates in the general election.
An e-mail urging 6,400 WSSU students and staff to support Democratic candidates was sent out Monday by the head of the school’s Division of Student Affairs on behalf of a student, the university said.
The university says that Michelle Releford, the interim vice chancellor for student affairs, sent out the e-mail without looking at it first. That was a mistake, the university said.
Tabor is not satisfied.
“WSSU has proven themselves to not respect and uphold the law,” Tabor said in an e-mail to Rob Coffman, the elections director in Forsyth County. “This disqualifies them from being a suitable place for early voting. There is already major distrust with voters. Please remove another reason for the voters to distrust the system even more.”
The elections board will have a special meeting at 1 p.m. Friday to discuss Tabor’s complaint.
Coffman sounded dubious that the elections board would move one of the early-voting sites away from WSSU. Coffman said he has had individual conversations with the board’s three members.
“The general thrust is, if we remove an early-voting site there, who is being punished?” Coffman said. “All we are doing is using their facilities. We do all the interaction with the voters. It may seem extreme at this point to punish possible early voters from that geographic area based on an administrative snafu.”
Early-voting sites are approved by the N.C. Board of Elections, Coffman said, suggesting another hurdle to changing the site.
Early voting started Oct. 14 at the office of the elections board in the Forsyth County Government Center on Chestnut Street. Starting Monday, seven additional sites — including one at the Anderson Center at WSSU — are scheduled to open.
Nancy Young, the director of public relations for the university, said that Releford received the e-mail from a student who wanted it sent out “to students to get them to vote regardless of political party.” Young said that it is routine for Releford to send out e-mails, since that comes within her job responsibilities.
Releford told Young that she “just didn’t look at” the e-mail, Young said, adding that it was unusual for Releford not to look at an e-mail before sending it on. Young could not say whether Releford faces any disciplinary action.
The e-mail invited recipients to “distribute the official Democratic Party candidate listing.”
The university issued a retraction in regard to the pro-Democratic e-mail and later sent out one promoting the GOP as an equal-time response. That e-mail was also retracted by the university.
wyoung@wsjournal.com
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