ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — In-person early voting in North Carolina ends at 3 p.m. Saturday. Voters are casting ballots not only in the presidential primaries, but also in several other races including for governor and Congress.
Turnout has been fairly steady in the last days of early voting in Elizabeth City. As of Friday morning, Pasquotank County elections officials said close to 2,000 people had already taken advantage of early voting.
“I wanted to make sure that there was no chance that I wouldn’t get a chance to vote," said Denauvo Robinson. “It was very quick, very easy; showed my ID, which was fine, and was able to vote in and out in less than a couple of minutes.”
Politics
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This is the first statewide election where photo ID is required in North Carolina for both in-person and absentee voting.
Pasquotank County Board of Elections director Emma Tate said common IDs include driver licenses, military ids or passports. More than 100 student or public employee ID cards are also acceptable.
“In general, IDs have to be unexpired or unexpired for less than a year,” she said. 'Unless you’re over the age of 65, then as long as your ID expired after your 65th birthday, it can still be used for the purposes of voting."
Voters can also obtain voter IDs at elections offices during the early voting period.
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As for election night itself, there’s a change in the order of how early votes will be counted.
“With the recent law changes, early voting is no longer considered absentee voting, so we’re not even allowed to tabulate those results until 7:30 p.m.,” Tate said. “So you will see the absentee by mail go up at 7:30, but the early voting results will be a little later for whenever we close the polls.”
If you’re planning to wait until election day to vote, polls open bright and early at 6:30 a.m. and they close at 7:30 p.m. You can check your polling place using the voter search toolon the North Carolina State Board of Elections website.
If you have an absentee ballot, it must be in the hands of elections officials at the time polls close on March 5.
