early voting

Allred: Let early voters switch parties

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:38:00 -0500

A bill would allow early voters to switch parties.

Rep. Cary Allred, an Alamance County Republican, said he filed the bill to make the rules on early voting more uniform.

Under current state law, people who register during early voting can choose their party, but voters who are already registered can't switch.

The bill would open the state's primary system a little, since it could lead to more crossover voting by people who switch parties at the last minute.

But Allred said he was not worried by that possibility.

"We've become pretty liberal in allowing unaffiliated voters to vote in either primary already," he said. "Why shouldn't the rest of us get to?"

The Year of the Voter?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:44:04 -0500

Democracy North Carolina says 2008 was the Year of the Voter.

In a year-end recap, the nonpartisan voting rights group says high interest in the Democratic primary and the November elections made this "a banner for voter participation."

A few of the numbers it cites:

VOTER TURNOUT: North Carolina led the nation as the state with the biggest increase in voter turnout over 2004. A record 4.35 million Tar Heels cast ballots in the general election, a big jump over the 3.55 million in 2004 and a 70 percent turnout of 6.2 million registered voters, compared to the 64% turnout in 2004.

EARLY VOTING: A record 2.4 million people voted at 368 Early Voting sites across the state. That's more than double the number who voted at the 250 sites opened in the 2004 general election. Another 228,000 voted absentee by mail, bringing the total number of early voters to 2.64 million, or 61 percent of all voters.

SAME-DAY VOTING: During 2008, just over 49,000 used Same Day Registration to participate in the primary and another 188,000 used it during the general election. About half of them were first-time voters in the county, while the other half used the new law to update an old registration.

BLACK VOTERS: More than one million African Americans voted in North Carolina in 2008. In 2004, only 59 percent of registered black voters turned out compared to 66 percent of registered whites. But in 2008, a record 74 percent voted, surpassing the rate of whites (69 percent) for the first time.

PUBLIC FINANCING: Eleven of the 12 candidates in contested races for the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals qualified for public financing, as did nine of the 11 candidates in the primary and four of the six candidates in the general for auditor, insurance commissioner and schools superintendent.

Still, the group saw room for improvement in voter involvement.

"One third of the voting-age citizens didn't vote in 2008, so we have plenty of room for improvement, but this year showed the way toward moving North Carolina closer to a government of, for, and by the people," said Director Bob Hall.

Elections board signs off on results

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:43:26 -0500

It's official: The November election is over.

The State Board of Elections signed off Tuesday on the results, approving the numbers in a canvass that brought no objections.

Elections director Gary Bartlett said that the board usually hears up to 10 election concerns, but there were no protests and the only pending issue had already been investigated.

"Zero issues — it doesn't get any better than that," he said.

He attributed the quiet to luck and training. Two candidates for school board in Nash County were inadvertently left off the ballot, but they had no opposition.

Two potential trouble spots turned out to be non-issues: The high volume of voters and the tricky "straight-ticket" ballot.

Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina said he'd like to expand early voting, which was a success. (AP)

Legislators proud of same-day registration

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:17:03 -0500

Early voting got all the publicity, but same-day registration was also a success.

State legislators on the elections law committee said they were proud of the record number of voters who cast ballots at one-stop sites in the weeks leading up to the election, but they were more excited about the early registration numbers.

According to figures compiled by the State Board of Elections, 91,736 North Carolinians registered at early voting centers and another 95,903 reported address changes, under election law changes allowed by a 2007 law.

In the May primary, 20,320 registered to vote and another 28,750 changed addresses.

The changes helped reduce the number of provisional ballots. Under the old system, people who reported address changes during early voting still cast a provisional ballot, while under the new system the voter registration was immediately updated.

For comparison, Wake County alone had about 4,000 provisional ballots this year and about 10,915 in 2004, according to legislative analyst Gerry Cohen.

State Rep. Paul Luebke said he expects other states to model North Carolina's early voting system. The only change he would suggest for the next elections would be to standardize the hours, encouraging local boards of elections to stay open longer in early voting.

Correction: An earlier version of the post misstated. the figures in the May primary.

Obama and McCain early vote strategies

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:49:53 -0500

Barack Obama focused on one-stop early voting, while John McCain went for absentee ballots.

Building on its early voting strategy in the May 6 primary, the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign in North Carolina focused on getting voters to the one-stop no excuse polling places around the state between Oct. 16 and Nov. 1.

"We looked at Oct. 16 as the first day of the election," said spokesman Paul Cox.

In recent years, early voting rules have also been expanded by the legislature and the State Board of Elections, according to Bob Hall of the voting rights group Democracy North Carolina.

He said the state went from 137 to 250 early voting sites between the 2004 and 2008 primaries, and from 192 to 368 early voting sites in the general election.

Because of the increase in sites and the emphasis by the Obama campaign, more than 2.4 million registered voters in North Carolina cast their ballots at one-stop sites.

That's about 39 percent of the state's 6.2 million voters.

The McCain campaign focused more on the N.C. Republican Party's traditional method of getting out absentee ballots among retirees and military personnel.

Overall, 214,367 voters requested absentee ballots, another 8,107 requested military absentee ballots and 3,997 overseas voters requested ballots.

That's about 3.6 percent of the state's 6.2 million voters.

Early voting

ryanteaguebeckwith — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:33:16 -0500

— Percentage of registered voters who cast ballots during early voting or by absentee ballot in the 2008 elections, according to the State Board of Elections.

Early voting closes in N.C.

ryanteaguebeckwith — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:06:10 -0400

Early voting has closed in North Carolina.

Though final figures were not yet available, preliminary numbers from the State Board of Elections show that more than 40 percent of the state's registered voters have already cast ballots as of 3:45 p.m.

In all, more than 2.5 million people voted early this year, more than double the number of early voters in 2004 and more than 70 percent of all the votes cast that year.

Some votes may still be cast. Anyone in line at a polling place by 5 p.m. can still vote under state law.

Early vote notes

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:46:44 -0400

Early vote notes

"The die is being cast as we speak."

— David Plouffe, campaign manager for Barack Obama, noting that a high percentage of voters in North Carolina and other states have already cast their ballots, in a conference call with reporters on Oct. 31, 2008.

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Obama likes early voting results in N.C.

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:44:16 -0400

Barack Obama's campaign manager says he's banked votes in North Carolina.

In a conference call with reporters this morning, David Plouffe noted that nearly 39 percent of registered voters have already cast their ballots here.

He said that 19 percent of all the Democrats who have already voted here have never voted in a general election before, noting that there are a lot more new registered Democrats in the state than Republicans.

Plouffe argued that early voting results in states such as North Carolina mean that McCain has that much more ground to make up in the next four days.

"The die is being cast as we speak," he said. "Senator McCain on Election Day is not going to just have to carry the day but carry the day convincingly."

He later added that the campaign expects its turnout efforts to boost Senate candidates such as Kay Hagan, but that was not their primary goal.

Early voting hours extended Saturday

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:20:53 -0400

With large crowds turning out for early voting across North Carolina, state officials want to give voters four extra hours to cast ballots Saturday.

For now, early voting is scheduled to end at 1 p.m. Saturday in most counties. But the State Board of Elections, in an emergency meeting today, asked that counties extend early voting until 5 p.m. Saturday, Thad Ogburn reports.

That request must be approved by local boards of elections, most of which have scheduled their own emergency meetings for Friday to discuss the issue.

Heavy turnout has led to long lines in some areas, particularly in Mecklenburg and Guilford counties. Officials in those counties sought the extra voting hours.

Statewide, 30 percent of registered voters had cast ballots through Wednesday night.