After NC Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, narrowly lost his primary election to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, he had a few takeaways. One, that Democrats influenced the results. Two, that the early voting period was too long. On the first day of the 2026 legislative session, Berger told reporters that lawmakers should reconsider how many early voting days North Carolina has, particularly in the primaries.
“I don’t know in the general election, where you have a lot more people showing up, but certainly in the primary, 17 days of early voting just seemed pretty excessive,” he said. “It really stresses the local boards of elections in finding the people to man the offices and those sorts of things.”
Several Republican House representatives beat Berger to the punch. During the 2025 session, a group of lawmakers filed House Bill 411, which would cut the primary early voting period to six days, beginning two Mondays before Election Day, and House Bill 66, which would do the same for the general election early voting period.
[Subscribe for FREE to Carolina Public Press’ Daily, Weekend and Election 2026 newsletters.]
This session, state senators filed a new early voting period reduction bill, Senate Bill 1084. It would ax the first week of early voting, cutting down to a 10-day early voting period for all elections.
None of these bills have made it very far. And yet, Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, both told reporters they’re still interested in addressing the primary early voting period this session if possible.
While the budget and some other policy issues are higher priority right now, Hall said, the early voting reduction bill still has a chance. Berger said there’s a “realistic possibility” that lawmakers will reduce the number of early voting days in the primary, but might not have time to make general election changes before the session ends.
Election directors across the state told Carolina Public Press that they were preparing for any outcome.
State Board of Elections spokesperson Jason Tyson said they haven’t been involved in the formation of any of the bills, but intend to follow the law.
How often do NC voters use early voting days?
In a good election cycle, Mecklenburg County Election Director Michael Dickerson can get between 60 to 80% of voters to cast a ballot before Election Day.
Across North Carolina, early voting is popular. For the past decade of general midterm and presidential elections, a majority of voters have opted to go to the polls one of the 17 days of the early voting period, which begins the third Thursday before Election Day and ends the Saturday before at 3 p.m.. In the 2024 general election, 74% of overall turnout was from early voting.
In even-year primaries, over a third of voters generally choose to vote early, according to State Board of Elections data. In fact, in this year’s primary election, 46% of voters used early voting.
Not every one of the 17 days is equally busy, said Harnett County Election Director Claire Jones.
“We get a lot of people that first couple of days and we get a lot the last few days,” she said.
During primary and municipal elections, those middle days can be “pretty slow,” she said, but remain busy during general elections. Rockingham County Election Director Paula Seamster agreed. She said turnout in the middle 10 or so days is “sporadic.”
Since 2018, an average of 44% of early voters in even-year general elections went to the polls during the first week of early voting. In primary elections, about 27% did, according to a Carolina Public Press analysis.
For college students, early voting is uniquely important, said North Carolina College Democrats President Beck Whitehead.
As first-time voters, students face a series of information problems. They might have a lack of information about how elections work or too much information on local issues and candidates that they need time to parse through as newcomers. Considering recent pushes to exclude college campuses from early voting sites, students might have to plan ahead to arrange transportation to the polls.
“This early voting window really does give students the opportunity to be informed, to take time to figure out who they want to vote for, to figure out where they want to vote,” Whitehead said.
If students aren’t registered to vote in their college town, the early voting period’s same-day registration is also “extremely important” as their last chance to make their voice heard, Whitehead added.
Poll workers and cost savings
If lawmakers cut early voting to 10 days, election workers would either have a greater flow during the remaining early voting days or Election Day.
Passing policy that encourages more Election Day voting worries Jennifer Rubin, president of the North Carolina League of Women Voters. Sometimes, things come up on Election Day, she said.
“Shifting the burden to Election Day just may discourage people from voting, or it may be a process where voters that just can’t get away on Election Day won’t be able to cast a ballot,” she said.
The more days of early voting, the less stress on poll workers, Dickerson said.
It’s easier to recover between shifts if they’re less busy, for one. It also gives workers time to be thorough with every voter, making for an overall calmer experience, Onslow County Election Director Jessica O’Neill said.
“What I don’t want is for my precinct officials on Election Day to be stressed out looking at a super long line and just whipping people through,” she said. “I want them to be able to slow down, take their time with that voter, make sure the voter understands everything.”
Losing early voting days would be worse during general elections, O’Neill said. She would expect longer lines and as a result, a lot of voter complaints.
But 10 days for a primary or municipal election seems manageable in most cases, Dickerson said.
“If you’re expecting a big one, you would obviously encourage your board to open up more early voting sites and handle it that way,” he said.
While Berger told reporters reducing early voting days would alleviate issues recruiting poll workers, election directors don’t necessarily agree.
The recruiting difficulty has more to do with the long hours and less the number of days, Jones said.
“It may help in some aspects that we don’t have to staff as many days,” she said. “But at the same time, we’re still going to have those long hours for Election Day and early voting, so for us, I don’t think it’s going to change too much.”
O’Neill said Onslow County election officials already work around poll workers’ schedules and allow them to take days off. She could see the change deter poll workers from signing up.
“Everybody has their own reason for volunteering, but some folks do it because, as older folks who are maybe on a fixed income, this helps them out, and so they may actually lose hours if the days are shortened,” she said.
Staffing voting sites costs money, though. Several election directors said the change could result in minor cost savings that they could use for something else.
However, if there are fewer early voting days, county election boards would likely consider adding more sites to take on the higher volume of voters, Northampton County Election Director Spinosa Clements said.
“It just depends on how the board would want to see that implemented,” said Orange County Election Director Rachel Raper. “If they wanted to add extra sites, then there would be no cost savings, and if they didn’t want to add extra sites, there would be cost savings.”
Losing weekend early voting days
If lawmakers reduced early voting to 10 days, there would be one fewer weekend. If they cut it to a week, then the only weekend day would be the Saturday before Election Day, when polls close at 3 p.m.
That could be tough in Graham County, where the majority of the working population, particularly the men, work out of town and rely on weekend voting, Election Director Teresa Garland said.
“That’s the hard part, is trying to accommodate them,” she said.
Dickerson would prefer 10 days of early voting over seven days for that reason.
“The second Thursday still gives you the option of opening a Saturday and a Sunday for the Souls to the Polls push,” he said, referring to the practice of certain religious communities going to the polls to vote after Sunday mass.
O’Neill said she would expect “astronomical” lines on the final Saturday if they lose the first two.
Weekend days are critical for students, Whitehead said. Between classes, homework, second jobs and other extracurriculars, Fridays and weekends tend to be the only days students might have a bit of free time to go to the polls, he said.
Preparing for anything
Lawmakers haven’t signaled what, if anything, they’ll do this session to reduce early voting days.
So, election directors are planning how to run this year’s election with 10 or 17 early voting days.
Election administrators are “resilient,” Clements said. So are voters, she added. With enough notice and education, she believes everyone will be able to adjust.
In Northampton County, they would advertise any changes through local media, social media, website updates and alerts and in person voter information sessions.
O’Neill said voter education will be key, since people are used to early voting starting in mid-October.
“If it moves back a week, I guarantee you every county is going to have somebody show up at their office or at their usual location on that more traditional first day of early voting, and then they’re going to be upset, and there’s going to be questions,” she said.
The League of Women Voters is ready to educate voters about any legislative changes that may be coming down the road, including early voting reductions, Rubin said.
“It’s definitely going to be a full court press for us to help educate and inform our voters,” she said.
Election directors know how to adapt to a changing landscape.
“I’m just sitting here ready to kind of tackle whichever one comes our way,” Jones said. “I’ve been here for a few years, so I’ve had to balance a lot of law changes, and so we’re just trying to do the best we can and make sure that everything still runs effectively and fairly.”
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here.
