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Commissioner Steve Arnold is unhappy with early voting locations that he said he believes are biased toward Democrats.

The sites for early voting, which begins in a few locations on Oct. 16 and expands to 19 polling places closer to Election Day, are in "Democratic strongholds," the Republican commissioner said.

About half of Guilford County's voters are registered Democrats, while one-third are Republican. Arnold wants to scale back the early voting sites to just town halls and courthouses, he said. He intends to introduce a resolution in Thursday's Guilford County Board of Commissioners meeting supporting that.

"There are only four Republicans on the board," he said, "but I'm going to try."

George Gilbert, Guilford County's elections director, said that the Board of Commissioners has funding authority over the the Board of Elections, but not much other power.

If the elections board wishes to change its early voting sites, then it must send its new proposal to the state board of elections.

The 19 early voting locations were approved unanimously by the three-member bipartisan board this summer and then approved by the state board, Gilbert said, adding that it's too late in the election season to change the plan.

"Even if we wanted to change it, we couldn't," he said.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com