Early voting in the Greensboro and Jamestown municipal primaries is underway, and so far things have gone mostly according to plan. There will no doubt be a whole lot more political drama in the mid-term elections next year, but for now things are all quiet on the Guilford County front.

 Guilford County Board of Elections Director Charlie Collicutt told the Rhino Times on Wednesday, Sept. 24 that turnout has been on the quiet side and election operations are running as they should – though one notable complaint of election interference was sent to Collicutt as well as to the Rhino Times.

 “It is a low turnout election which doesn’t mean that things don’t happen, but it’s been very smooth thus far,” Collicutt said.

One issue arose in an email from a voter who said he or she witnessed a woman working for a candidate trying to pressure people into supporting three particular candidates. The complainant wrote that this individual was “aggressively instructing voters” and became hostile when challenged.

The complaint writer also claimed the woman in question yelled and cursed at another person outside the polling place and then directed the same hostility toward them.

According to the email, a precinct judge observed the behavior, and the woman reportedly told others she planned to repeat her tactics at the Greensboro Coliseum early voting site.

Collicutt said he took the complaint seriously but noted that it wasn’t directed at an official election worker.

He said it was clear it was one of the candidate campaign helpers who hand out literature outside polling places.

“I’ve not had any complaints against my workers,” Collicutt said.

He explained that he responded to the complainant by asking for more details such as the time and a description.

“I do walk around and try to make sure this stuff doesn’t happen,” he said, adding that county election staff hadn’t received any complaints against official precinct workers.

“I went down and talked to them,” he said.  “I’ll have to talk to them tomorrow because some of the crew that worked there yesterday wasn’t there today, but I haven’t had any reports.”

Even with low turnout, Collicutt said, incidents like this can crop up.

 Campaign helpers are allowed outside of voting locations as long as they follow the rules and don’t cross over the line into harassment or intimidation.

Aside from that complaint, the election has been pretty uneventful.

Machines have been operating properly, he said, lines have been short, and voters have been able to cast their ballots with little to no delay. Collicutt said that’s exactly how he likes it.

Turnout is always hard to measure in a municipal primary.

 “You know it’s hard to find good apples-to-apples comparisons because the last City of Greensboro election we had, the primary, we were running it alongside of the county primary because of the delay from redistricting,” he said. “That was 2022, and that’s not a good comparison because that was a big midterm primary with other stuff on there.”

If you go back further, to 2017, Greensboro held its primary on the same day as High Point.

 “We are doing better than we did then,” Collicutt said. “I would say that this is a slight uptick over what we had.”

Without High Point in the mix this year, it’s not an exact comparison, but the bottom line is that turnout is on pace to be a little stronger than the last stand-alone city primary.

One question voters have raised is whether there’s a strategic advantage in only voting for one candidate when they’re allowed to pick more than one.

Collicutt acknowledged he’s heard of that practice before.

“There are people that will say there’s a strategy there called ‘single-shotting,’” he said. “The thought process is you don’t want to vote for somebody that might beat the person you really want to win. I don’t know if that’s a winning strategy or not, but there are people who do say that.”

In other words, some voters think it helps their favorite candidate.

One problem of course, is that voters who follow the practice don’t get to use all their votes.

Another topic that always seems to pop up at election time is campaign signs. It’s a big topic this year too. Some residents have complained about signs being moved or taken down, but Collicutt said that’s not his office’s doing.

“All the cities and towns with their planning departments have jurisdiction over that,” he said. “There are certain laws whether it’s in their charters or ordinances or there’s some state law on it of where signs are allowed to be in regard to on the roadway.”

In other words, if a sign disappears from a location inside city limits, it’s probably because of city staff enforcing ordinances, not county elections officials or opponents stealing signs.

“That is those planning departments’ jurisdiction,” Collicutt said.

In unincorporated Guilford County, signs can go up in the rights-of-way of roads on state-maintained roads during early voting. However, if the road is maintained by a city or town, that local government can set its own rules.

As for one of the biggest sign no-nos, Collicutt offered the following: “Don’t put one up on somebody else’s private property without permission. And be careful putting your signs in the right-of-way around sections and things that would be deemed a safety hazard.”

Some signs are removed because they’re perceived as a danger.

With the Greensboro general election just weeks away, Collicutt said his office is already preparing for a busier November. After that, candidate filing for the 2026 elections will begin in December.

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