Unable to reach an agreement on a new early voting plan, the three-member Orange County Board of Elections will submit four separate plans to the state, leaving the ultimate decision up to the State Board of Elections.
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“The more votes you can lock in early, the easier it is for you on election day to lock in people”, Gruters said.
Neither plan included Sunday hours, much to the dismay of numerous attendees, but the majority plan included five sites for early voting and a total of 569.5 hours.
Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin has announced a grant program to encourage cities and towns to open a polling place on the last weekend in October during the state’s first ever early voting period.
The State Board of Elections says boards in 66 of the 100 counties unanimously approved their updated plans, but 25 other counties have turned in two or more plans.
But 24 counties provided two plans – one approved by a majority on each three-member board and the other backed by a single member.
Cox’s plan calls for 739 early voting hours, including hours on Sundays.
“Same Day” registration WILL BE allowed during early ONE STOP voting. Randall has said he did not pay attention to the email; Knight has not responded to emailed questions. When the federal court struck that provision down, boards had to gather in order to approve a new 17-day early-voting plan. Floridas primaries are closed, so voters can only cast ballots in races affiliated with their registered party, Republican, Democrat or Libertarian.
Early voting historically has been favored by Democratic voters.
Nearly half of the mail ballots returned so far for Tuesday’s primary election have come from Floridians who voted in either one or zero of the past four primary elections.
The state’s top elections official said it’s too soon to tell if the results of the primaries will be affected by the storm, but local elections officials will be prepared to make sure people can cast their ballots.
Early voting sites for the 2012 presidential election included the Agricultural Center in Carthage, the old West End school gym, the former Kroger grocery store (later Trident Marketing) on Poplar Street near USA 1 in Aberdeen and a vacant store in the Food Lion shopping center on N.C. 22 in Whispering Pines.
Under the board-approved plan, early voting would take place from 8:30 a.m.to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays at the Ag Center in Carthage, with the exception of Monday, Oct. 31 (Halloween) when it would close at 5:30 p.m.
Her plan “would facilitate that choice and give our voters one final opportunity to cast their ballot most conveniently, without an excess of additional resources”, she said.
Visit www.votercheck.necvr.ne.gov to check whether you’re registered to vote and find your polling place. She said the state requires that an armed guard be stationed there to keep the facility secured when it is being used by an outside group, which would cost about $3,000.
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For the complete early voting regulations, go online to www.sec.state.ma.us, click on elections then go to publications and scroll down to last item. Early voting covered 10 days during the 2014 elections. Of that number, almost half – 11,184 – voted at the Ag Center. The state board needs to mandate this because, sadly, many local elections boards are resisting, and even sadder, they’re being egged on by the state GOP. “We still have a long road ahead”.
