We have had five weeks of voting by mail and now we get to voting in person on Thursday, Oct. 15, in the 17 days of early voting leading up to the main event, Election Day on Nov. 3. It almost seems like an anticlimax.
“Early voting is a great way to find a time that’s convenient to participate in the election,” Gary Sims, the director of Wake County Wake County Board of Elections, said. “You can even register to vote and update your address at the same time you cast your ballot.”
There are 20 sites around the county but the site for the Wake Forest-Rolesville area is the Northern Regional Center at 350 East Holding Avenue in Wake Forest, but you can vote at any site in the county. Curbside voting will be available. Some may want to vote at the Eastern Regional Center at 1002 Dogwood Lane in Zebulon.
You can also visit WakeVotesEarly.com for an interactive map, hours, details about each site, answers to frequently asked questions and more. You can also download a sample ballot customized to your address at ReadyToVote.com.
Starting Thursday, the Northern Regional Center and the other 19 sites will be open:
*Weekdays from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
*Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and
*Sundays from 1 to 6 p.m.
*On the last day of early voting, Saturday, Oct. 31, sites will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
If you want to beat the crowds, the lines are historically shortest on the first days of early voting. The busiest times are around lunchtime on weekdays, from 10 to 11 a.m. on Saturdays and the last three days.
Because of the pandemic, there are new safety procedures this year to make sure you, your fellow voters and the election officials are safe. Voters will be provided masks if they are not wearing one, hand sanitizer and single-use pens to mark their ballots. The election officials will wear proper personal protective equipment, they will sanitize surfaces between votes and ensure everyone is following the social distancing guidelines.
After the voter fills out his ballot, it is run through a tabulating machine that photographs the ballot and stores it in a bin. The tabulators are never connected to another machine or to the internet.
If you still want to request a ballot by mail you can do so. Remember the last day to request that mail ballot is Oct. 27. Sims and other election officials urge you to request your mail ballot as soon as you can, fill it out and return it quickly.
Today, Oct. 14, The News & Observer reported that there were lengthy delays between a person requesting a mail-in ballot and the time it was received by the voter. There were not any estimates about the length of time between the person mailing the ballot and the acknowledgement that it had been received and accepted. Because of this, area people may consider voting early in person.
The Wake County Board of Elections – and all the election boards across the state — have been examining and tabulating the returned mail ballots since Sept. 29. They will continue to do so weekly. This early tabulation with counting beginning early on Election Day will make sure North Carolina will be able to announce the final votes on Election Day night or soon after.
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