Commissioners approve Printelect to print ballots despite the company’s history of printing racist postcard

Despite concerns raised by Commissioner Malishai Woodbury and citizens about a racist photo printed in 1902, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners has voted to move forward with contracts with  Owen G. Dunn Company, a printing company utilized  throughout the state for printing election products.  On Thursday, Sep. 19, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners were scheduled to approve two contracts totaling $129,274 with Owen G. Dunn Company (also known as Printelect) for their services during the upcoming election.  According to information taken from the company’s website, Owen G. Dunn is based in New Bern and offers a wide range of high election supplies including voting booths, ballot printing and voting equipment sales.  Ahead of the meeting, Woodbury, who is a Democrat and was elected in 2022 to represent District A, shared a photo that was printed by Owen G. Dunn Company that shows a young Black boy eating watermelon with the caption “Satisfied with Life,” New Bern, North Carolina. In the same post Woodbury showed the cover of the book Understanding Jim Crow: Using Racist Memorabilia to Teach Tolerance and Promote Social by David Pilgrim. The cover  has a drawing of a racist cartoon character eating watermelon, similar to...