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Everything you need to know for the 2024 election.

N.C. Early Voting turnout on pace to overtake 2020 early voting numbers

The state Board of Elections held its regular meeting on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.
NC BOE
The state Board of Elections held its regular meeting on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.

Turnout in the state is poised to overtake the previous early voting numbers from the last Presidential election in 2020, state Board of Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell shared in a board meeting earlier this week.

The figure does not include mail-in ballots which saw record numbers in 2020 because of the pandemic, Brinson Bell explained.

“In total, we have had about, we're over 43% in turnout, just through these two voting methods, and six days left to go for the 2024 General Election. So we're definitely seeing significant turnout,”Brinson Bell said at Tuesday’s meeting.

Compared to earlier tallies, Brinson Bell said women are now turning out at a higher number than men.

In the Helene impacted counties, Brinson Bell said there have been significant improvements since the last meeting. Unexpectedly, all early voting sites in the state had power on the first day of early voting.

On Election Day, Brinson Bell said that originally the team expected that there would be 15 Election Day sites operating out of emergency tents. But because of recovery efforts, there will only be seven Election Day sites operating out of emergency tents: Four tents in Yancey County, one in Buncombe County, one in Haywood County and one in Burke County. The facilities will have floors and heating, and Brinson Bell assured members that the tents are secure.

Bell shared two stories from these counties. In the Big Creek area of Haywood County, the community is cut off because of the damage to I-40, she said.

“There's 22 voters in that precinct, that community, who are cut off because of the washed out Interstate,” Bell said. “They've communicated with them. They know their options for absentee by-mail voting but there will also be the ability for them to vote on Election Day.”

In Yancey County, the county BOE established a relief tent that will now also be used for voting with a bi-partisan team of poll workers for about 100 people who are isolated by road closures in a community there.

“They will not be going by horse or helicopter, it will be by four wheel drive vehicle through the water of the river to deliver those materials and bring them back, but that's better than the hour and 40 minute drive that it currently takes where they have to route through Tennessee into another North Carolina county in order to get to the county seat,” she said.

Bell reminded voters that Early Voting continues in all counties through Saturday, Nov. 2. All sites statewide are required to open on Saturday and will close at 3 p.m. Voters in all counties must vote in the county where they are registered. There are no exceptions for in-person early voting due to Hurricane conditions.

Find information about your local candidates at BPR’s Western North Carolina Voter Guide and all our election information at BPR’s Election Hub.

Lilly Knoepp is Senior Regional Reporter for Blue Ridge Public Radio. She has served as BPR’s first fulltime reporter covering Western North Carolina since 2018. She is from Franklin, NC. She returns to WNC after serving as the assistant editor of Women@Forbes and digital producer of the Forbes podcast network. She holds a master’s degree in international journalism from the City University of New York and earned a double major from UNC-Chapel Hill in religious studies and political science.