By the end of business day on Thursday all North Carolina counties had to have their early voting plans submitted to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
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With the presidential election less than three months away, millions of Americans will be navigating new requirements for voting – if they can vote at all – as state leaders implement dozens of new restrictions that could make it more hard to cast a ballot.
In addition to requiring voter ID, they reduced the number of days voters can cast ballots in person before Election Day, placed new restrictions on voter registration drives, eliminated opportunities to register and vote on the same day, or moved up deadlines to register and still vote on Election Day.
The Election Commission has announced that Springfield voters can cast their ballots early this year, if desired, at 10 selected polling locations in the city in advance of the November 8 General Election.
However, Democracy N.C. and other voting rights advocates plan to attend and monitor the State Board of Elections as it takes up all county early voting plans, Hall told The High Point Enterprise. The plan Randall is planning to submit to the state board includes 530 hours of early voting. Additional days of early voting may be offered in some counties.
People don’t have to give a reason to vote by mail in North Carolina, such as out-of-town Election Day traveling or being too sick to leave the house.
Recorder Christine Rhodes was proud to report last week that Cochise County was “first in the state” in its percentage of early voters who had turned in their ballots, but even she encourages people who haven’t yet mailed back their ballot to get busy and turn it in. Floridas primaries are closed, so voters can only cast ballots in races affiliated with their registered party, Republican, Democrat or Libertarian. Republican Mitt Romney won the state by 92,000 votes in 2012, while Democrat Barack Obama won by 14,000 votes in 2008.
Matt Hughes, chair of the Orange County Democratic Party, said that more than 100 people attended and about 25 people spoke, with all but one speaking in favor of increased voting, expanded hours – including Sunday voting – and more poll sites. One of the provisions of that law had reduced early voting to 10 days.
In late July, the court declared the bill unconstitutional, saying the law was put in place to stifle the African-American vote “with nearly surgical precision”.
Republican board member Bob Randall, who rejected the compromise, submitted his own plan for consideration that would allow 530 hours of early voting.
Georgia election officials begin mailing absentee ballots September 20, followed by Wisconsin on September 22, Virginia on September 23 and MI the following day. “There’s the types that are like in Pennsylvania, these are people, voters, that are going to be away from their home, and they just need to vote [via] a mail ballot, that’s the only option they have to participate”. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada and New Hampshire start in October.
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Voters and several other groups sued the state over the legality of the law, disputing the changes and how they disproportionately affects black voters across North Carolina. Among battleground states, Iowa also opens early voting September 29, followed by Ohio (Oct. 12) and Georgia (Oct. 17). Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Hampshire don’t have early in-person options.
