By Tim Gardner
As early voting got underway Thursday, October 17, in North Carolina, voters can cast ballots in-person, at any polling place in the county in which they are registered. They do not have to vote in-person at a specific precinct until General Election Day on Tuesday, November 5.
Statewide, 419 early voting sites are open, covering all 100 counties. For voters who want to vote early but are not registered yet, same-day registration is an option during the early voting period, which ends on Saturday, November 2. Through that process, prospective voters can register at a polling place and then vote immediately after.
Under state election regulations, North Carolina voters must show a photo identification (ID) at the polling place to vote.
As normal, absentee ballots still have to be returned by 7:30 p.m. on General Election Day. State election officials have said that there are currently no plans to expand electronic voting beyond servicemembers and visually impaired.
For voters in the North Carolina High Country, Hurricane Helene has made life difficult for many. To help people in its communities, state election leaders made changes to some regulations in the state’s 13 hardest-hit counties. Avery, Watauga, Ashe, and Mitchell are among the 13. Because of Hurricane Helene’s horrific impact, the following changes for those most affected counties include:
*Absentee ballots can be returned to any county board of elections office
*Absentee ballots can be dropped off at polling places on election day
*County boards of elections will have flexibility on early voting and voting day polling locations with bipartisan majority approval
The US Postal Service has been providing election officials with a daily update of the roads that are blocked and can’t allow deliveries. The officials are then matching up the information to their list of voters who have requested absentee ballots and contacting them to determine how best to get ballots to them so they can vote.
80 early voting polling locations were originally set to open in the North Carolina Mountains. Despite the devastation caused by the hurricane, 76 of those sites still opened on Thursday, according to Karen Brinson Bell, Executive Director of the State Board of Elections.
In previous years, rural counties often had just one early voting (polling) site. This year, some have expanded the number of sites to accommodate hard-hit areas still recovering from Hurricane Helene.
Shelia Ollis, Avery County’s Director of Elections, said the county has two early voting sites for the first time after Hurricane Helene damaged polling sites and/or their parking lots in 14 of 19 precincts. There, early voting will be conducted in the meeting room at the Avery Dive-In Pool, located at 220 Shady Street in Newland, and in the newly added voting site at Riverside Elementary School, located at 8020 South US Highway 19-E in one of the communities hardest struck by Hurricane Helene–Ingalls. Election officials at the school will use Starlink satellite service to help power the tabulation for three precincts (Ingalls, Plumtree, and Roaring Creek) now consolidated into one polling location.
Early voting in Avery County may be done from 8:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at the Avery Dive-In Pool and from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. at Riverside Elementary School on the following dates:
Thursday, October 17
Friday, October 18
Monday, October 21
Tuesday, October 22,
Wednesday, October 23
Thursday, October 24
Friday, October 25
Monday, October 28
Tuesday, October 29
Wednesday, October 30
Thursday, October 31
Friday, November 1
Early voting may also be conducted on Saturday, November 2 at the Avery Dive-In Pool from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. and at Riverside Elementary School from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. That last day during the early voting period is the only Saturday when voting can be conducted for the General Election in Avery County. There will be no early voting on any Sunday during the period.
Ollis added that the Avery Board of Elections will release a new list of regular voting sites where the county’s registered voters can cast ballots on the November 5 General Election Day once those sites are all finalized.
You must be logged in to post a comment.