When UNCG student Laura Stanley went to the early voting
site at the Weatherspoon Art Museum a few weeks before the election, she wasn’t
sure if she needed to bring anything. At age 20, it was her first time voting,
though she had registered several months prior.
As she walked up to the polling place wearing an Obama
sticker, Stanley said she approached a man holding a Romney sign and asked him
what she needed to vote. Without asking her any questions —like if she
was already registered — he told her she would need ID and two pieces of mail
such as a bill to prove her residency. He asked her who she was voting for and
she answered with “Obama,” and he reiterated that she would need ID and two
pieces of mail, Stanley said.
Trusting his advice, Stanley turned around and left, not
realizing until Sunday night that the information was entirely false after her
mother inquired about whether she had voted and did a little digging.
It is not clear whether the man and the woman he was with
outside the Weatherspoon were with the Guilford County Republican Party and the
affiliated Victory campaign, but Guilford County GOP chair Al Bouldin said the
party has had someone stationed at the Weatherspoon for the majority of early
voting. Stanley said she overheard the woman, who wore a “Conservatives for
America” hat, talking on the phone about someone coming to take over the next
shift.
When asked about the advice Stanley received, Bouldin said
it was true if she hadn’t voted before, even if she was already registered. Trying
to explain the different requirements for first-time registrants or people in
Stanley’s shoes, Bouldin falsely stated what was required each time but said he
delegated those responsibilities out and added that Guilford County GOP Vice
Chair Mindy Greenwood handled it for the party.
“We don’t teach them to give advice on the voting process or
rules or anything like that,” Greenwood said after Bouldin passed her the
phone. “They don’t have that level of training. We just tell them to be nice
and courteous and to stay where they’re supposed to be and that’s sort of the
only training that they get.”
Greenwood said questions about registration are usually
referred to her, Bouldin, someone else in party leadership or directly to the
board of elections.
“We’re not here to be experts on that,” she said, adding
that people like the man Stanley encountered were just supposed to be
knowledgeable on the candidates. “We’re not the board of elections so we don’t
try to be. We don’t train them to know about voting, and the process and the
rules with the board of elections.”
Charlie Collicutt, the deputy director with the Guilford
County Board of Elections, said that while early voting registration does have
a higher identification threshold, no voters are ever required to provide ID and two pieces of mail. People who are
already registered and haven’t voted yet are almost never required to provide
identification as Bouldin claimed, Collicutt said, except when a
previously provided social security number or driver’s license number doesn’t
match.
Out of 360,000 registered voters in the county, 8,000 — or 2
percent — have had to show ID in such a circumstance, he said. Students can
register with a student photo ID along with a document from the school showing
their name and current address, Collicutt said. While it may be easy to get
confused, he said, the Romney supporter provided false information and
shouldn’t have answered Stanley’s question in the first place.
“He had no knowledge of her registration status,” Collicutt
said. “Even if she was a same day
registrant, he’s still wrong. He is not the appropriate person to answer that
question. The voters are also wading into dangerous waters when they go and ask
advice from people who aren’t associated with the board of elections.”
Collicutt added that
he has worked well with Bouldin and that he planned to contact Bouldin
regarding the information, saying that the requirements were “complex” and that
“there’s so much nuance.”
In the end, Stanley realized the error with some assistance,
and said she planned to vote on Election Day. While she unknowingly passed the
false information along to a friend, she said he wasn’t deterred because unlike
her, he did have a document to prove his address — even though she didn’t need
one.
