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Tension surfaced at Monday night’s regular Greenville City Council meeting as Harry Crum, brother of mayoral candidate Kenneth Crum, publicly challenged the city’s recent decision to consolidate all polling locations for the upcoming municipal election to a single site at LBW Community College.

During the June 10 meeting Crum voiced his concerns that the move represented an egregious voter suppression attempt. 

“I believe this is a blatant attempt to suppress the voting process in [the council’s] aim to mimic national trends,” Crum said. “This decision reeks of voter suppression.”

Crum posed a series of detailed questions and concerns regarding logistics, voter accessibility and transparency. 

“Who selected… who came up with it or who suggested this outlandish idea?” he asked. “Was there a discussion on logistics, long lines, inconvenience to some of the voters, transportation of voters?…You made a major decision without consulting the people that you’re supposed to represent and serve.”

As Crum concluded, District 4 Councilman Jaeques Brown attempted to respond, “Thank you, sir. I do wanna add something… So, I respect everything that you’re presenting here tonight…” However, he was stopped by Mayor Dexter McLendon who halted the discussion.

“Oh, wait… Just wait. We’re not gonna get into a back and forth.”

Brown shifted his comments to address the full council.

“District 1, District 2 and District 3, they were our highest voting precincts out of all five districts within the city of Greenville,” Brown said. “Now District 4 and District 5… I was very disappointed in District 4 because that’s one of our bigger districts that votes. Well, of course, they have a lot of registered voters, but the numbers were low. 

“My point that I’m making is I’m just gonna be honest. Our problem is not the voting precinct. Our problem is trying to get people to vote.” 

McLendon emphasized that the city clerk would follow up with Crum in writing.

 “Dee [Blackmon]’s got this tape,” McLendon said. “She will send you a letter answering because most of it has to do with what she directed to us… It was a unanimous vote. It’s not gonna change because we’ve already put everything in place.”

The meeting concluded shortly thereafter, with McLendon calling for a motion to adjourn. No official response was given during the meeting regarding whether any council members had suggested tabling the vote or relaying the proposal to constituents prior to approval.