Primary election day in North Carolina is going well, according to North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) Executive Director Sam Hayes, who said during a press conference Tuesday morning that there has been a good turnout and that tens of thousands of people have already voted during the early voting period.
But there have been a few hiccups.
“Yesterday, a precinct in Warren County, the sole city fire department precinct in Nutbush, sustained fire damage,” he said. “Thanks to the swift coordination between our emergency management and local elections partners, a mobile voting unit was dispatched, and voting has continued without disruption. We’re grateful for their professionalism and quick action to ensure voters in that community can cast their ballots without interruption.”
Cumberland County also reported yesterday the possibility of delays due to recent updates to its tabulation software, which takes longer to print the required results at the close of polls, according to Hayes, who said it isn’t a widespread issue affecting any other county, and they don’t anticipate that the delay will put Cumberland County significantly behind any other counties in reporting, and said that the board is confident that all county boards of elections will report results as quickly as possible tonight.
He said early voting turnout in the primary has been very encouraging.
“Early voting participation is up roughly 25% compared to the 2022 primary,” Hayes stated. “A total of 701,000 voters cast ballots during the early voting period for this primary. That’s up from 559,000 in 2022, which was the last midterm primary. When including absentee voting, 714,000 voters cast ballots through Monday, which represents a 23% increase over the 580,000-plus ballots cast at the same point in 2022. In some counties, early voting participation even surpassed the 2024 primary levels, demonstrating strong engagement from North Carolina voters.”
County boards will begin uploading results at 7:30 after the polls close, and some results should be seen by 7:50, with absentee votes being counted first, followed by early voting and then in-person election day votes.
There have only been some isolated reports of what election officials call “unruly behavior” at the polls, and it’s not expected to be a widespread occurrence.
Voters are reminded to bring a photo ID and can check the NCSBE website to find which are permissible. If a voter doesn’t have photo ID, they can cast a provisional ballot and return with their ID. They can also cast a reasonable impediment or declare a reasonable impediment as well.
Stein: “go vote”
While Democratic Gov. Josh Stein didn’t comment directly on any of the races in today’s primary, he told Carolina Journal exclusively after Tuesday’s Council of State meeting about the importance of voting in our country, particularly during this year as the United States marks its 250th anniversary.
“Go vote,” he told CJ. “It’s a democracy. It is a miracle. For 250 years, we’ve been doing this in this country, and it is new to human history until we started this, and it’s our duty to keep it going for another 250 years, and so go vote.
After talking about a successful First in Freedom Festival this past weekend, including the remembrance of the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge, the governor reflected on the significance North Carolina has played in our country’s history
“We’re one of the original 13 (colonies), and we played a really important role in the creation of this country, and I think we should take a lot of pride in that and take a lot of motivation to carry it on, because we need to continually revitalize and strengthen our democracy,” Stein told CJ. “It doesn’t just happen independent of us; it is us. We make it happen, and this is our turn.”
Polls are open until 7:30 pm.
