The State Board of Elections is forcing commissioners in all counties to meet today to consider extending early voting hours from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, the last day of early voting.
Counties must extend hours unless there is a unanimous vote by commissioners to close the polls at the regularly scheduled time.
Spread the word!
From wral.com
Wake, Chatham, Cumberland, Johnston and Lee county election boards unanimously voted to keep one-stop voting sites open an extra fours, until 5 p.m. Saturday.
The Orange and Franklin county boards voted unanimously to maintain the scheduled closing time of 1 p.m.
Other county elections boards planned to meet later Friday.
The State Board of Elections on Thursday mandated that county boards hold emergency meetings to consider extending voting hours Saturday. Under the mandate, only a unanimous vote could sustain a decision not to extend hours; if even one board member wanted it, polls would stay open longer.
State board members said they wanted extra hours to cut down on long lines and accommodate the large voter turnout at one-stop sites.
More than 1.9 million people had cast a ballot at the state's 366 one-stop sites through 11 a.m. Friday. A total of more than 2.1 million North Carolinians – or 34 percent of all registered voters – had voted early, by mail or at a polling place.
WOW through Thursday, more than 202,000 people had voted at one-stop sites in Wake. Wake and Charlotte counties are the counties that are going to decide NC for Obama!
I have a very good feeling about this. I was worried because there were no lines here in Orange County. But then again we had a lot of early voting sites.
In Orange County 43,000 of 120,000 RESIDENTS voted early. Going to be kind of lonely at polling stations on election day.
UPDATE:
Extended:
Mecklenburg County (expect 8,000 more voters because of extension)
Buncombe County
Harnett County
Forsyth County
Henderson County
Johnson County
Durham County
Camden, Hertford, Gates and Pasquotank
Guilford county
Guilford County is where the race will be won or lost in NC.
Also this is Hagan's home district!
Will not extend early voting:
Chowan, Currituck and Dare counties
Lincoln County
Transylvania County
Polk County
Sampson County
Hyde County
Perquimans county
About a third of North Carolina's registered voters had cast ballots through Thursday
Mecklenburg and Guilford county boards sought the Saturday extension.
In the Ha Ha category:
In Cumberland County, local Republican Chairman Ralph Reagan said voters already have been given enough opportunities to vote. He said poll workers needed some time before Election Day.
Jim Jarvies, a Republican and former member of the local Board of Elections, opposed extending the time, too.
"Enough is enough," he told the Board of Elections. "I think it's more important for each individual to take some responsibility and get down here and vote."