UNCG student given misinformation at early voting

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When UNCG student Laura Stanley went to the early votingsite at the Weatherspoon Art Museum a few weeks before the election, she wasn’tsure 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 Obamasticker, Stanley said she approached a man holding a Romney sign and asked himwhat she needed to vote. Without asking her any questions  —like if shewas already registered — he told her she would need ID and two pieces of mailsuch as a bill to prove her residency. He asked her who she was voting for andshe answered with “Obama,” and he reiterated that she would need ID and twopieces of mail, Stanley said. Trusting his advice, Stanley turned around and left, notrealizing until Sunday night that the information was entirely false after hermother inquired about whether she had voted and did a little digging. It is not clear whether the man and the woman he was withoutside the Weatherspoon were with the Guilford County Republican Party and theaffiliated Victory campaign, but Guilford County GOP chair Al Bouldin said theparty has had someone stationed at the Weatherspoon for the majority of earlyvoting. Stanley said she overheard the woman, who wore a “Conservatives forAmerica” hat, talking on the phone about someone coming to take over the nextshift. When asked about the advice Stanley received, Bouldin saidit was true if she hadn’t voted before, even if she was already registered. Tryingto explain the different requirements for first-time registrants or people inStanley’s shoes, Bouldin falsely stated what was required each time but said hedelegated those responsibilities out and added that Guilford County GOP ViceChair Mindy Greenwood handled it for the party.“We don’t teach them to give advice on the voting process orrules or anything like that,” Greenwood said after Bouldin passed her thephone. “They don’t have that level of training. We just tell them to be niceand courteous and to stay where they’re supposed to be and that’s sort of theonly training that they get.”Greenwood said questions about registration are usuallyreferred to her, Bouldin, someone else in party leadership or directly to theboard of elections. “We’re not here to be experts on that,” she said, addingthat people like the man Stanley encountered were just supposed to beknowledgeable on the candidates. “We’re not the board of elections so we don’ttry to be. We don’t train them to know about voting, and the process and therules with the board of elections.”Charlie Collicutt, the deputy director with the GuilfordCounty Board of Elections, said that while early voting registration does havea higher identification threshold, no voters are ever required to provide ID and two pieces of mail. People who arealready registered and haven’t voted yet are almost never required to provideidentification as Bouldin claimed, Collicutt said, except when apreviously provided social security number or driver’s license number doesn’tmatch. Out of 360,000 registered voters in the county, 8,000 — or 2percent — have had to show ID in such a circumstance, he said. Students canregister with a student photo ID along with a document from the school showingtheir name and current address, Collicutt said. While it may be easy to getconfused, he said, the Romney supporter provided false information andshouldn’t have answered Stanley’s question in the first place. “He had no knowledge of her registration status,” Collicuttsaid. “Even if she was a same dayregistrant, he’s still wrong. He is not the appropriate person to answer thatquestion. The voters are also wading into dangerous waters when they go and askadvice from people who aren’t associated with the board of elections.”Collicutt added thathe has worked well with Bouldin and that he planned to contact Bouldinregarding 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 thefalse information along to a friend, she said he wasn’t deterred because unlikeher, he did have a document to prove his address — even though she didn’t needone.