A former Granville County Republican Party chair sent Republican members of the county's election board more than 150 text messages during a two-hour meeting in July, coaching them on exactly what to say and how to vote on a contested early voting site in Creedmoor. One of those board members later deleted the messages, saying he viewed them as comments about meeting protocol rather than something worth keeping.
The texts, sent by Michael Magnanti during the July 15 Granville County Board of Elections meeting, were captured in photographs taken by Cole Rodger, who snapped pictures of Magnanti's phone screen while seated in the audience, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. Magnanti, who is the former chair of the Granville County Republican Party and served as a 2024 Electoral College elector for North Carolina's 13th Congressional District, according to Carolina Journal, did not provide comment by publication, the News & Observer reported.
Among the messages, Magnanti advised Republican board member Debby Butler to defend keeping the South Branch Library early voting site closed and told her to vote against the site, according to the newspaper's account. He also encouraged Butler not to reconsider her opposition, and Butler herself wrote during the meeting that she wanted to give in, per the same report. Butler later said she was not willing to change her opinion and described the deleted messages as “nothing evil,” though she declined a further request for comment.
What Happened to the Messages
Fellow Republican board member Douglas Smith received similar instructions from Magnanti, including advice to mute his phone and a directive not to make or second a motion during the meeting, the outlet reported. Smith later deleted the texts after deciding they were irrelevant, telling the paper he viewed them as comments about meeting protocol. He said he could not retrieve the messages from his phone provider afterward and did not provide comment by publication. Butler, by contrast, was able to retrieve her texts from her own cell carrier.
The deletions raise questions under North Carolina's public records law, which prohibits public officials from destroying documents deemed public records and classifies unlawful destruction as a Class 3 misdemeanor, carrying a fine of up to $500. Under North Carolina General Statute § 132-3, no public official may dispose of a public record without authorization. The statute's reach is broad: North Carolina General Statute § 132-1 defines public records to include electronic data and text messages made in connection with public business, a threshold that UNC School of Government guidance says applies squarely to messages exchanged about board votes.
Why the Vote Went to Raleigh
Granville County Republican board members ultimately voted against hosting an early voting site at South Branch Library, opposing the Creedmoor location outright. Because North Carolina election law requires county boards to adopt early voting plans by unanimous vote — a requirement set out in General Statute § 163-227.6 — the non-unanimous outcome sent the decision to the North Carolina State Board of Elections, which carries a 3-2 Republican majority under the composition rules of General Statute § 163-30.
The state board considered Granville's non-unanimous plan alongside disputes in 20 counties statewide during an 11-hour meeting, ultimately siding mostly with Republican proposals while voting to restore the South Branch site as a compromise, according to Carolina Public Press. The board separately refused Democrats' request to restore a downtown Oxford early voting site. Democrats performed better in both downtown Oxford and the South Branch area than in the rest of Granville County during the 2024 election, per the News & Observer's reporting.
Teresa Gilreath serves as the Democratic member of the Granville County election board, while Sharyn Alvarez said she did not receive texts from the Democratic Party during the meeting, according to the same account. Granville County's approved plan for the November 2026 general election now includes three sites — the Granville County Convention and Expo Center in Oxford, the South Branch Library in Creedmoor, and Tar River Elementary School in Franklinton — operating October 15 through October 31, a schedule that relocated the county's former downtown Oxford site to the convention center several miles away, according to Granville County.
Part of a Broader Statewide Fight
Granville's dispute is one piece of a wider fight over early voting access playing out across North Carolina this year. In Wake County, Democratic leaders submitted a 60,000-signature petition seeking to restore an early voting site at N.C. State University, a controversy Hoodline previously reported reflected pushback against reduced campus and community voting access statewide. Creedmoor, where the South Branch Library sits, has also drawn scrutiny in recent months over local governance issues unrelated to the voting fight.
