Town and Gown Go to Court: Redistricting Fight Hits Boone, NC

A photo of Boone North Carolina from Howards Knob Overlook. Photo Creds: Andrew Larsen. 

Andrew Larsen, Podcast Desk Lead for The Powderhorn

Like many college towns, Boone, North Carolina has a town-gown divide between locals and the resident university. Recently, this has spilled into local election politics. Redistricting troubles and accusations of gerrymandering followed a new voting map introduced by the North Carolina Legislature in 2023. Critics contend that dividing Boone and Appalachian State University between two districts splits liberal voters and gives a significant advantage to conservative candidates. Meanwhile, supporters argue that the map provides a greater voice to local rural voters, instead of non-local students. At its heart, it’s a debate about political representation in a community with different claims to belonging. 

Across the country, redistricting has become a focal point of partisan rancor with state-wide battles in California, Texas, and North Carolina, often listed as one of the most gerrymandered states. Fair election advocacy groups have fought to redraw voting districts, with claims of bias against people of color and reduced value of urban votes. 

But grassroots groups also work within specific counties they believe suffer from gerrymandered districts. One county in such a position is Watauga County in Northwestern North Carolina. The county seat, Boone, is a largely liberal center surrounded by a more conservative rural county, making it a microcosm of the larger fights occurring across the country. The divide is even more stark when school is in session as the population jumps from 19,000 to 40,000 with a left-leaning student body. 

The voting map that the North Carolina Legislature introduced in 2023. Photo courtesy of the Watauga County Board of Commissioners.

Following the introduction of new voting districts by the NC state legislature, the largely liberal county commission utilized a state statute that allowed them to redraw the voting maps if there was a significant population difference between the districts. The proposed map would have three district-specific candidates and two at-large candidates for whom the entire county voted. The articulated goal was to ensure that all people throughout the county were represented without favoring one party, while also not splitting precincts across districts. 

The updated map created by the County Commission in 2024, and voted on in that year’s election. Photo Courtesy of Ray Russell.

The November 2024 election ballot included a referendum on whether to adopt this new map, and 71% of the county voted in favor. Yet, the map was not adopted, as the NC State Legislature, led by State Senator Ralph Hise, preemptively passed a bill to prevent the map from going into effect until 2032. The following year, a coalition of citizens and activist organizations known as the Watauga County Voting Rights Task Force sued the Watauga County Board of Elections, with the NC Legislature intervening in the case shortly after. 

Ray Russell on the roof of his office at Ray’s Weather, located in the heart of Boone. Photo Credits: Andrew Larsen.

Ray Russell is a leading plaintiff in Watauga County Voting Rights Task Force v. Watauga County Board of Elections. Russell is a well-known community figure for his local weather service and was one of the county commissioners during the initial 2023 mapping conflict. As someone whose top issues include “fair voting, fair elections, fair districts,” he viewed the legislation as a “blatant partisan stunt.” 

“It was obviously unfair,” said Russell. “It violated every principle of fair maps and fair voting. Our initial goal was to have the districts thrown out for both the school board and the county commission. To include the school board, it had to include claims that they used inappropriate means to divide these districts. Malapportionment is the technical term. The other big thing is banning the implementation of our plan for the county commission until 2032.” 

On April 3, 2026, the District Court ruled that the plaintiff’s malapportionment claims were beyond the reach of the courts, forcing them to remove the claims from their case. Depositions are set to begin this month but may be delayed due to vacations by key members of the case. 

Russell has been working alongside Indivisible, a Democratic organization with the goal of stopping “the rise of authoritarianism in the United States.” Donna Lisenby is the head of the local chapter and is a Watauga County election official. Much like Russell, she saw the situation as “brazenly corrupt and illegal.” 

“What I hope will happen is that the judge, in the federal courts, will rule that the North Carolina General Assembly acted inappropriately and broke North Carolina law,” said Lisenby. “When a state government or a federal government does something that is illegal, there’s no real arbiter for that, other than the courts. And a lot of times, federal judges are very reluctant to tell an entire state legislature, ‘Hey, you broke your own laws.’ A lot of federal judges don’t have that kind of courage.”

With a long appeal and trial process, costs have piled up. Currently, Russell is working alongside Common Cause, a non-partisan grassroots organization focused on protecting democracy in small communities, to raise awareness and money for the case. Cathy Williamson, a board member for the group, is part of that effort. 

“The goals for me are getting more balanced and fair courts that aren’t so agenda driven,” said Williamson. “The other part would be to educate everybody who voted the way that we did. You’re just being ignored. I mean, 71% of the voters voted for it, it’s pretty common sense to me. But that doesn’t mean that a court is going to see it that way. And the will of the voters is being overturned at every angle, every corner.”

But Terry Oldham, a Watauga County citizen, took it upon himself to conduct his own research, giving a presentation to the county commission about a survey he administered to community members. Speaking with 103 people, Oldham found that rather than 71% of voters approving the commission’s map, 97% were now against it in retrospect, and felt that they had been misled by the language in the referendum. 

“I just hope that the people who are pushing this know that ‘we have 71%’ is not true,’” said Oldham. “So it wasn’t a representation. I think people were deceived. People were very confused. I just hope that there wasn’t real deception, that it wasn’t on purpose, that it was just put together quickly.” 

Yet, Oldham’s study didn’t follow scientifically recognized polling principles, with significant limitations given the small sample size and no data on voter affiliation. This makes it unclear if voter opinion has actually substantially shifted since the referendum vote. 

The conservative-led team of defendants, including Senator Hise, argue that the commission-created districts are an attempt to retain Democratic control in the county and give greater weight to Appalachian State student votes in comparison to local votes. Linda Byrd, the Watauga County Republican Party’s chairwoman, and Braxton Eggers, the chairman of the currently conservative-led county commission, did not respond for comment. Senator Hise’s Office declined to comment, citing potential legal concerns. 

However, Jennifer Coffey, Treasurer of the Watauga Republican Party, said, “Natives of Watauga County have been upset that the town, university, etcetera are making decisions for them and this puts the power back in their hands.”

The new voting districts imposed by the state legislature are expected to have significant consequences in the upcoming election, for example, flipping party representation on the school board by increasing the number of Republican members. The stakes are clear: increased student vote representation leads to a blue shift and their diminished representation leads to a red shift. 

This case echoes similar conservative efforts to weaken student representation throughout the state. At University of North Carolina Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the North Carolina Board of Elections removed on-campus student voting sites. 

The outcome of this case is up in the air, but the debate reflects a deep divide in North Carolina over who the legitimate political stakeholders are in a community. As Cathy Williamson said, “This model will travel right across the state.” At stake, then, is more than a configuration of a single district, but also a broader question of how best to represent the voice of the people.