About 2,600 polling places are open statewide for the North Carolina primary election.
Karen Brinson Bell is the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, and says hundreds of thousands have already cast their ballots.
“Statewide, more than 670,000 voters cast ballots during the early voting period, and 19,449 voters have cast ballots by mail,” she said.
That’s not quite as high as last time around because Brinson Bell said, "Between in person, early voting and absentee voting combined, we are below turn out for the presidential primary in 2020.”
A change in election law that took effect ahead of this primary will impact the time it takes to tally up the results. Brinson Bell said, "We will release absentee by mail results when the polls close. However, the change in the law requires that we not tabulate the early voting results until after the polls close.”
She said for some counties it may be about 30 minutes later than in previous years, but in other counties that have multiple early voting sites, it may be an hour or two longer before those results are posted.
And county election workers will be watching closely for any inappropriate behavior at the polls.
"We in North Carolina do not allow for law enforcement to be stationed at polling places because that could be intimidating to a voter.” Brisnon Bell said, but added that they work closely with law enforcement to share with them what is legal, and how they can help if there is something of concern.
"They can, if need be, be called in as peacekeepers to help us mitigate a situation,” she said, “Hopefully it does not come to that. We've really had pretty calm early voting and what few instances have happened have been very one-off situations.”
Another new change voters may notice -- political observers may be more visible at polling places
Brinson Bell said those observers can now roam about the polling places more freely, and they’ll be identified as an observer by the badge they are required to wear.
"That will identify them as an observer so that it's clear to the voter that that person is there in an observer capacity,” she said, “And if they need assistance, they should be working with their precinct officials.”
She added, though, that they are not allowed to get close enough to see a voter’s ballot choices.
“If moving about means that they could view how a voter has cast their ballot,or is marking their ballot, then they will not be able to enter into that close proximity,” Brinson Bell said. “The secrecy of the ballot will still be the most important thing.”
Brinson Bell says it is too late to put an absentee ballot in the mail because of a new deadline for delivering absentee ballots by the close of polls at 7:30 p-m on Election Day. Voters can instead drop it off at their county Board of Elections office or can discard it and vote in person at the polls
Voters are required to present photo identification to cast their ballot. Most would-be voters are not eligible to register and vote on Tuesday.
Polling places will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. State law allows anyone in line at 7:30 p.m. to still cast their vote.
