Big AP story showing partisan intent by election officials in shutting down student voting in North Carolina:

A Republican member of the North Carolina elections board worked closely with local officials in their effort to eliminate a heavily Democratic voting site, a plan a judge ruled was intended to suppress voter turnout, according to hundreds of emails reviewed by The Associated Press.

The state Board of Elections is supposed to act as a neutral arbiter when policy disputes arise involving county elections boards. The emails show that Paul J. Foley worked closely behind the scenes with GOP officials in Watauga County as they crafted a plan to eliminate the early voting site at Appalachian State University….

The lawsuit contended Foley’s “continual collaboration” with Stacy Eggers IV, the Watauga County government attorney and a former local elections board member, revealed a “partisan motive” behind the action.

Their correspondence, reviewed by AP, frequently refers to “the opposition” and “the other side.”

In early August, 2013, as a new county board with a Republican majority was about to be sworn in, Eggers asked Foley to examine proposals he expected would pass, including removing the early voting site from the university’s Plemmons Student Union.