A record number of North Carolina voters cast ballots on the first day of in-person early voting on Thursday, according to a press release from the North Carolina Board of Elections.
More than 350,000 people voted at sites statewide, topping the previous record of 348,559 ballots accepted on the first day of early voting in 2020.
“Yesterday’s turnout is a clear sign that voters are energized about this election, that they trust the elections process, and that a hurricane will not stop North Carolinians from exercising their right to vote,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections said in a press release. “Let’s keep it rolling, North Carolina.”
Gathering in front of voters at Asheville's Wesley Grant Southside Center, an early voting site, Buncombe County Director of Elections Corrine Duncan said voting would continue despite the devastation suffered from Hurricane Helene.
READ MORE HERE: Your Vote: Western North Carolina Voter Guide
“In person early voting opened as expected in all 100 North Carolina counties,” Brinson Bell said. “That includes 76 early voting sites in the 25 counties in the Helene disaster area. Down only four from the 80 early voting sites originally planned.”
Brinson Bell expressed appreciation to the poll workers at the different county sites and to the bipartisan State Board of Elections on the quick response to the storm.
“Within a week of the storm, the bipartisan State Board of Elections voted unanimously on a series of emergency measures designed to help the county boards of elections in Western North Carolina have the flexibility to provide voting for their voters despite the damage and giving voters their ballot in the region additional ways to request and return absentee ballots," Brinson Bell said.
Duncan followed up by explaining the challenge around supporting voting in Buncombe County, the largest county in Western North Carolina.
“We cover 660 square miles, have over 214,000 registered voters, we support 80 election day voting locations, and a robust early voting plans”
In the aftermath of Helene, Duncan explained how the BCBOE had knocks on the door from people wanting to know if elections were going to happen and the answer was “yes.”
The BOE unanimously passed adjustments to election day locations.
READ MORE HERE: Buncombe County announces early voting sites
“We are ensuring that voters have every opportunity to cast their ballot this election and that they do so securely,” Duncan said “...The right to cast a ballot is valued and it also represents in yet another way how our community is rising together.”
As of Friday morning, more than 6,000 Buncombe voters cast their ballots at in-person early voting.
Among them was lifelong Asheville resident Leslie Hines who expressed a need for strong leadership and collaboration.
“Leadership is important to me. The economy, I go up and down with it, but that's not as important to me,” Hines said. “People are important to me. I think everyone should have a right to live in one of the greatest countries in the world.”
Hines added he doesn’t believe in a divided government and believes that voters need to “cross the line, work it out, talk it out and try to make it best for everybody.”
Madison County voters
Madison County also saw a busy first day of early voting with nearly 1,000 voters casting their ballots.
At the Beech Glen Community Center in Mars Hill, there wasn’t a time when voters weren’t inside voting, Chief Judge at the Beech Glen site Ruby Payne said.
One of those voters was David Pressley, a Mars Hill resident of 52 years. Pressley, a registered Democrat, said he was concerned about the way politicians and others have behaved in recent times.
“ I'm concerned about decency as a way of conducting ourselves,” Pressley said. “In this particular presidential election, I am concerned that one of the candidates has no interest in that…I wanted to make sure that I cast my vote as soon as I had the opportunity to do that," he said.
Registered independent Tim Teves said he has leaned towards voting conservative the past 24 years.
“Really disappointed with the governance of the last four years at the federal level and just wanted to ensure that change occurred,” Teves said. “I think the biggest thing that's been at least impacting our family is economically. High inflation. As well as just, I won't lie, some cockamamie policies that had been pushed by the current administration that have been massive disappointments.”
