Ronni ButtsWhile Dawn Baxton, Durham County Board of Elections Chair, expects fair and safe elections in Durham County this presidential election, she hopes that the youth vote will increase over its 2020 election rate.
“Every time you have an opportunity to vote on issues that affect your life, you need to do it. It’s just that simple,” said Baxton, who has served as a board member since 2011 and as the chair since 2021.
According to the Durham County Board of Elections website, youth voting was only 13.09% of the total vote count in the 2020 presidential election.
“I wish I knew what the cause of that was,” said Baxton. “It’s important at an early age to not get in the habit of thinking voting is only important if there’s a presidential election. Every time there’s voting, it’s important.”
Only 73.86% of eligible voters in Durham voted in the last election. Baxton projects this will increase this November, especially if youth voters turn out.
“I anticipate that the youth vote will be important in a lot races, local and presidential,” she said.
Two weeks ago, CBS17 reported that the N.C. State Board of Elections announced that N.C. voter registration increased by about 19,000 people.
There have also been numerous national initiatives to increase voter registration. National Voter Registration Day was Sept. 17 and National Black Voter Registration Day was on Sept. 20. The Black Voter Registration Day initiative was created by BET, NAACP, Michelle Obama’s “When We All Vote” organization and over 35 more partners.
But voter turnout isn’t the only issue on the horizon this election season. There has been a surge, since 2020, in election board members refusing to certify votes.
Since former President Donald Trump’s persistent challenges to the 2020 Biden win, conservative county election board members have sometimes refused to certify elections, something unprecedented and illegal.
In 2022, Surry County, N.C. Board of Elections members, Timothy DeHaan and Jerry Forestieri, were removed from their positions from the N.C. State Board of Elections for refusing to certify their county’s local elections. Baxton is confident that that Durham County will not face this problem.
“It is our job as members of the county Board of Elections to not be partisan, to make sure that we’re actively counting and reporting the votes cast by the citizens the way they wanted their voices heard, and to simply follow the law,” said Baxton.
On top of the voter certification issue, the election might be marred by various threats from individuals or groups unhappy with election outcomes.
According to the Associated Press, since the 2020 election, there have been numerous instances of intimidation of election workers and officials. They have received death threats, mail with white powder in it — sometimes testing positive for fentanyl — and physical harassment. In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, shots were fired into their election office.
And there have been instances of swatting, or prank calls that draw emergency services to the home of election officials.
“We’ve never had that problem because we are just committed to making sure that we do elections the way they need to be done. We do our jobs the way we’re supposed to do it,” said Baxton, adding that she doesn’t anticipate threats in Durham County because “the citizens respect us.”
Baxton said she was first inspired to support voting because her aunt took her to the polls every election as a child. She said her aunt’s civic engagement “impressed upon me the importance of voting and being civically engaged … it is a way to serve my community in a way that’s important.”
You can visit the Durham County Board of Elections website at https://www.dcovotes.dconc.gov/
