A letter from Rhino Times reader Deanna M. De’Liberto
As the 2026 Primary approaches, the Guilford County Democratic Party has called for early‑voting sites at Barber Park, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, NC A&T, UNCG Kaplan Center, and Washington Terrace Park.
It’s important to remember that in 2022, when the BOE had a Democratic majority, only eight early voting sites were used, and these five locations were not included — yet voters had ample access.
The current majority plan for 2026 proposes ten sites, carefully distributed across the county to ensure geographic balance. This approach provides fair access for all voters — urban, suburban, rural, and student populations — without the need for additional politically motivated locations.
By contrast, the minority plan proposes fifteen sites, which is far more than necessary and would complicate logistics without improving access.
Because the plan was not approved unanimously by the county Board of Elections, state law requires the North Carolina State Board of Elections to review and decide the final plan.
Claims of voter suppression are inaccurate. The proposed majority plan continues to provide fair and accessible early‑voting opportunities for all voters, without unnecessary additions.
Voting should be about access, not politics.
Deanna M. De’Liberto, Greensboro
The writer is the second vice chair for the Guilford County Republican Party.
Here’s a really novel idea…DO AWAY WITH EARLY VOTING!!!
We have a president who has demanded conservative states redistrict so Republicans can Gerrymander additional seats in 2026 elections in spite of the growing dissatisfaction with his economic policies as well as his foreign policy agenda that supports Russia and pushes for starting new regime change war in South America. So yeah, Democrats should do all they can to counter his blatant attempt to steal seats in Congress.
Duh, guess NC never did gerrymandering until just recently. Where have you been the last 50 or so years?
We have NEVER Gerrymandered in the middle of the decade at the direct request of the President. THAT is a fact. As a matter of fact, the only time NC has redsistritced outside of a census year is by court order because the Map Republicans made were deemed illegal.
Where have you been?
Tough sh*t, buddy.
Chris why would NC have needed to gerrymander in the middle of a decade. Democrats had control of NC for over 100 years. Quit crying in your cornflakes
The brilliance of the right-wing approach was to first ‘win’ the courts which had long blocked conservative election maps. Now that they control the maps, conservative run the house and the senate at the state level even though we continue to elect democrats into the Governor’s office. So of course, conservatives work hard to strip power from the Governor so they can continue to destroy things such as education in order to give corporations a free ride at the expense of the working class.
North Carolina gerrymandering was practised and perfected by the Democratic Party, over more than a century.
Now that the shoes on the other foot, hypocrites like our Village Idiot pretend that they’re shocked! Shocked! I tell you!
I don’t see what the democrats are worried about in Guilford county unless this has more to do with the proposed sales tax increase than anything else. There might be a hard push to get it passed in areas where the democrats also want more voting sites. Pack the vote as UT were
Trump is fully willing to use the rules in his favor, just like the democrats do when they are in power. If you don’t like gerrymandering, have your democrat masters do something about when they are in power. They have had multiple opportunities throughout history to get rid of it or amend the rules around it. But instead, they choose to use gerrymandering themselves and you have been and will be will be oh so quiet about it when they do so. Hypocrite and a dummy.
Don in case you missed it. Chris was a Republican until President Trump took office
In 2021 all house Democrats all voted to end gerrymandering. Not a single republican voted in favor of the bill. The senate never put the bill up for vote. THAT is a fact.
But look farther back when Dems had total control and guess what, nothing changed. The Democratic Party held an almost unending iron grip on the North Carolina General Assembly (both houses) for more than a century, from the 1870s until 2010. THAT is a fact. I guess they forgot to get rid of gerrymandering that whole time, dummy. Very selective of you to pick that one vote that they had no hope of winning, hypocrite.
Pick one vote? LOL, the last vote. Republicans are declining in popularity. Hence they can’t win the popular vote anymore. They know Trump has tanked their popularity even more this term than his last so they are for the first time trying to redistrict off cycle of the census. THAT is a fact.
Nice dodge. Stick to the actual topic at hand. You cited exactly one vote in 2021 where republicans stopped a democratic push to end gerrymandering. This was a specific vote that the Dems knew they were not going to win, making it simply a political stunt. I pointed out that Dems had plenty of chances in the entire century prior to that to end gerrymandering without any help from republicans. They could have done it anytime but chose not to and, in fact, did quite a bit of gerrymandering themselves over that century to keep themselves in power. You simply ignored that part because it doesn’t fit your narrative. So dumb. And THAT is a fact.
LOl, you are the one that changed the subject with your ASSUMPTION that democrats assumed they would lose the vote. Republicans wouldn’t even bring to the floor to vote on in the senate….because they feared it might pass. Too chicken to call their bluff I think is how I recall the circumstances.
Best wishes.
No, my point, which is on topic, is that the Dems had plenty of opportunity to get gerrymandering eliminated or under stricter control throughout the 20th century and the first few years of the 2000s, but chose not to do so. You can’t suddenly be “applaud” when republicans start using it to their advantage just the Dems have done for decades.
Sure I can. And I did call out conservatives for being afraid to even bring the bill to vote. Shouldn’t have been a concern if they believed as you do….that it was a bluff. It wasn’t. Democrats now understand that control the popular vote since the early 2000s so now WAS the time to press the issue. Republicans know they are declining in popularity so refused to vote.
So nope, yet again we fail to agree or convince the other of our OPINONS on the subject. Not shocked. But enjoyed the exchange just the same.
best wishes
Yes, because you can’t ever be wrong. They do say ignorance is bliss. You personify that, dummy.
Here comes the childish name calling again. Yawn.
Ignorance of what? We are both making assumptions that can’t be verified. Just relax and enjoy an exchange with someone you disagree with….it’s healthy and good way better under the opposition even if we can’t agree.
Best wishes.
I am not making any assumptions. The Dems had control of NC congress for all of the 20th century and chose not to put any limits or controls on gerrymandering. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, they and you suddenly don’t like it. Too bad. Should have changed it when they had control and are welcome to change it when they get control again. Where was your outrage in the 1990s or early 2000s when you were an alleged republican and the Dems did the gerrymandering? You just don’t like it because it hurts the party you favor. That is why you’re dumb and a hypocrite, bro.
Your assumption is that they were bluffing.
I know they were bluffing because they had so many prior opportunities to make changes and did not use them. Now all of the sudden it’s for real? Get out of here.
Right. You are assuming they were bluffing. You have a rationale for your assumption but that doesn’t make it fact.
I assume they weren’t bluffing because the actually voted on the bill and republicans were too afraid to put it to a vote because I assume they assumed Democrats weren’t bluffing.
See how that works Don. Glad to help more if needed.
There are no assumptions here on my part. Take off your rose colored glasses and use your brain. Votes don’t just happen. There is a lot of behind the scenes whipping and negotiating. The Dems knew they didn’t have the votes well before anything was presented. It’s just posturing. You can say you told me so when the Dems take over and magically decide to end gerrymandering, but they will never do that because they like it too. Don’t be dumb.
Still an assumption unless you have a direct quote from someone inside the Dem party. Just because you really really really really believe it doesn’t mean it isn’t an assumption.
Agree to disagree
—
Officer Don has conclusively won the point.
The captious, argumentative and disingenuous “Chris” isn’t big enough to admit he’s lost the argument and his credibility.
My first Presidential election was Goldwater-Johnson. I stood in line for that, and showed ID & voter registration card. You had to register before election day. Any dilution of this enables fraud.
And who wants fraud?
Please define “voter suppression” and give some examples where it was SUCCESSFULLY accomplished.
After Trump’s big lie about voter fraud that never happened, there were 79 laws passed by States classified as ‘restrictive’ voting laws. I assume you are asking for evidence that those law were proven to have suppressed votes.
There are several examples of these restrictive voting laws suppressing votes:
1-In Texas, the 2021 law S.B.1 led to the rejection of roughly 30k mailed ballots or applications during the primary. Nearly 90% of those affected did not participate in the election at all. (This law was found later to be in violation of the Civil Rights Act)
2- Research shows that voters whose ballots are rejected once (almost always for minor issues in completing the forms) are much less likely to vote in future elections (ie there were valid reasons they couldn’t vote in person…)
3- In states that make mail in voting more restrictive, saw large drops in mail in voting participation (over 50%) which a large percentage of those voters not voting in later elections that had used mail in voting in prior years.
4- In Georgia, Black voters were 25 percentage points more likely than white voters to have their mail ballot application rejected.
5- In counties once monitored under the Voting Rights Act, the gap between white and nonwhite voter participation was reportedly growing at twice the rate of the rest of the country.
There are a wide range of reasons people prefer mail in ballots. Disability, limited access to transportation, availability to vote in person due to work schedules or business travel, etc… There has been no evidence of mass fraud from mail in ballots. Just hollow unproven accusations and distrust by different groups. Making mail in ballots intentionally more confusing to complete has had the biggest negative impact on voter turnout.
No study has bene able to prove with definitive evidence that overall turn out has been materially impacted as cause and effect is hard to isolate to all the other variables that impact turnout so the above examples are really just strong indicators.
My personal take….given how close many national elections have become, it is a concern that warrants a close eye but I don’t personally see it as a travesty as some want to make these changes out to be. For example, have no issue with voter ID laws. I just think we should keep making voting accessible and easy for all to access and mail in ballots and early voting are key to that end.
Hope that helps.
Chris,
You failed to provide PROOF of actual “voter suppression” .
1, WHY were they rejected? How did they ID who they wanted to “suppress”? Ballots don’t indicate race. Opting to “not participating” is not “suppression”.
2. “…are much less likely to vote in future elections…” is not “suppression”, it’s voluntary non-participation. And the “…valid reasons they couldn’t vote in person…” is simply failing to vote by absentee balloting, a LEGAL form of early voting.
3. Mail In balloting so open to voter fraud there is no real way to ensure who is voting and are they legal.
4. WHY were those ballots rejected? There is documentation somewhere on the reasons for rejection.
5. What were the reasons sited?
“There are a wide range of reasons people prefer mail in ballots. Disability, limited access to transportation, availability to vote in person due to work schedules or business travel, etc…”
Churches and non-profits are constantly offering transportation to polling places, not to mention neighbors offering transportation . Then there is always absentee voting (not “mail-in” voting).
” There has been no evidence of mass fraud from mail in ballots. Just hollow unproven accusations and distrust…” What about the DOCUMENTED cases of the folks caught stuffing mail boxes with HANDFULS of mail-in ballots? I guess the pictures were doctored.
“For example, have no issue with voter ID laws. I just think we should keep making voting accessible and easy for all to access and mail in ballots and early voting are key to that end.”
So I should make copies of my DL or Military ID and include it when I vote by mail. Nothing bad can happen there. And voting is accessible and easy to access by all…IF they’ll get off their fourth point of contact (and plenty of people will help if requested) and GET TO THE BALLOT PLACES AND VOTE.
(Unless you have members of the Black Panthers standing outside the voting location with weapons. I think that constitutes “voter suppression”, but hey, I could be wrong.)
When those Black Panthers stood on the steps leading up to the polls with billy clubs in their hands in Philadelphia in 2008. Sadly, most of the charges were dropped as soon as Obama’s people too over.