It is voting season in Wake County and across North Carolina. How do you plan to vote?
You have three options, all available to everyone: voting by mail from now through late October, voting during early voting in October or voting on Election Day, Nov. 3. North Carolina is generous with its voting availability, giving us 17 days of early voting plus 51 days in which you can receive, fill out and return mail-in (absentee) ballots. Boards of elections received requests for ballots all during August then began mailing the requested ballots on Friday, Sept. 4.
You can find all the information you need by going to www.readytovote.com, the Wake County Board of Elections website, but here is a synopsis.
Let’s take the ways to vote in reverse. To vote on Election Day you have to know your polling places, the place you vote, and it is listed on your voter registration card. All polling places will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. or until the last person in line at 7:30 has voted.
Early voting lasts for 17 days in October, from Thursday, Oct. 15, through Saturday, Oct. 31. It includes three Saturdays and two Sundays. In Wake Forest the early-voting site is the Northern Regional Center on East Holding Avenue where you can get in line – socially distanced to vote or drive up in your vehicle for curbside voting.
The early voting sites are open from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on every weekday, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the first two Saturdays but from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the third Saturday, Oct. 31. The hours on the two Sundays, Oct. 18 and 25, are from 1 to 6 p.m. Again, all this information is on the elections board website.
There is a bit more to the absentee-mail-in ballots but it is really quite simple. Every voter can decide to request the absentee ballots. There is a portal on the Wake County Board of Elections website where you can request a mail-in ballot or you can find the paper request form on the website, print it out and return it by mail, email or fax or go to the elections board office in person.
Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. is the last time you can request an absentee ballot and it must be postmarked on or before Election Day, Nov. 3. Given the controversy over absentee ballots at the national level and concern over the delivery service of the US Postal Service, it will be best to request, fill out and return the ballot well before Nov. 3.
Within a few days – it is not clear how long it takes for the ballot to reach the elections office and be accepted – you can go to https://northcarolina.ballottrax.net/voter and check the ballot’s status.
If there is an error – a signature not matching, not a full address for the one witness – you will be notified if it can be corrected.
Of course, all of the above takes for granted that you are a registered voter. If you are not, you have until 5 p.m. on Oct. 9 to register to vote. Once again, go to the board of elections website and follow the instructions to register.
Once the returned ballot is in the Wake County office, a staff person will view it, make sure it is signed, and put it in the locked ballot cage.
The deadline for requesting an absentee ballot is 5 p.m. on Oct. 27, meaning the request has to be in the office by the time.
On Sept. 29, the Wake County Board of Elections will meet to discuss the absentee ballot returns and other issues. The five person board is made up of Chairman Greg Flynn, Angela Hawkins, Keith Weatherly, Erica Porter and Gary Cohen – two Democrats, two Republicans and a chairman named by the governor.
If the board determines there are a sufficient number of ballots by then to begin the tabulation, they will instruct Elections Director Gary Sims to have the staff open and tabulate the ballots.
The tabulator is the same kind you see when you vote in person that tells you how many people have already voted at that precinct or early voting site. The marked ballots are first stored in the tabulator and then stored in a secure part of the elections office.
The board will meet at least six more times during the election, including a meeting on Nov. 3, and the tabulations will continue. On Election Day the staff will begin tabulating the ballots in the office at that time at 7:30 p.m. when the polls close and then will finish the tabulations Friday, Nov. 6, adding all those absentee ballots that were postmarked on or before Nov. 3.
On Nov. 13 the board will meet to hold a canvass and certify the official vote count.
The Wake County Board of Elections is responsible for conducting all elections held in the county. The board establishes election precincts and voting sites; appoints and trains precinct officials; prepares and distributes ballots and voting equipment; certifies ballots cast in elections; and investigates any voting irregularities. The Wake County Board of Elections also maintains voter registration and voting records of more than 759,000 residents.
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