Short lines, or no lines, greeted Election Day voters at many North Carolina polling places Tuesday morning, apparently due to the high number of early voters in 2024.
With warm and dry temperatures, the mood at polling places on Election Day ranged from festive to bored and hopeful to apprehensive.
“Everyone has been courteous and nervous about the outcome,” said Orange County Republican electioneer Holly Meschko in Hillsborough, adding that everyone is interested in “peace.”
Carolina Public Press team members visited Election Day polling places at counties across the state Tuesday to talk with poll workers, electioneers and voters.
This article shares what they heard and observed.
Voters determined
“Chills went through my body when I voted because there are so many important things going on in the country right now,” New Hanover County voter Wanda Richman told CPP.
“It felt like a load was lifted off my shoulders. I think about my ancestors and what they went through. Now I’m a great grandmother. I tell my grandkids: if there is one thing I want you to do when you get off work today, it’s vote. If you don’t say your opinion, you’re voiceless.”
Richman says affordable housing is a top issue for her. “I pay $1,700 in rent,” she said. “For where I live? That is ridiculous.”
Across the county in Wrightsville Beach, voters tilted more to the right.
“We want Trump to do what he did for those four years again,” said Susan Collins. “I don’t trust Kamala. We care about democracy, our Constitution, our borders, and our economy.”
Voters and electioneers told a similar story of minds clearly made up for voters showing up at the polls on Election Day this year in North Carolina.
Kate Flaherty, an Orange County Democratic electioneer in Hillsborough described the small number of voters arriving at the polls there on Election Day as “very prepared.”
In Chatham County, multiple electioneers at a precinct near Pittsboro told CPP that Election Day voters were turning down sample ballots from either side of the political aisle at a high rate this year.
At Johnston County’s Riverdale Elementary School polling place near Clayton, Kathy Scott had done her homework ahead of Election Day.
“I look up the candidates and I look up their platform,” she said. “ I’m not letting anybody else sway my decision.”
Scott said she has also blocked campaign texts, skips political ads and avoided the internet to avoid being bombarded with messages trying to influence her.
Even so, some voters felt they could have been more ready as they faced the long ballot full of choices.
“My only regret is that I don’t think I was as prepared as I could have been,” New Hanover voter Anita Turner said as she cast her Election Day ballot in Wrightsville Beach.
Some Election Day voters were motivated by candidates and others by specific issues.
New Hanover County voter Imani James in Wilmington said her votes would be influenced by her conviction against abortion in particular.
But that issue cut the opposite way for other voters.
Lindsey Strope and Jonathan Levy were there canvassing for Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates down the ballot in Wrightsville Beach.
“I don’t like what’s going on in the Republican Party,” Levy told CPP. “Harris is the common sense choice if you’re looking toward the middle. I have two young kids and I don’t want them growing up with abortion bans and dehumanized immigrants.”
Strope agreed, and added that her children’s medical struggles have informed her voting decisions. She supports the Affordable Care Act and reproductive rights for women.
Turner was among the voters who said local issues were highly important to her.
“The main local issue I care about is overbuilding,” she said. “We need to save what little land we have left. We need to save the environment and stop building apartment buildings.”
Perceived overdevelopment was also a key issue for some voters down the coast in fast-growing Brunswick County.
“Today is about picking the lesser of two evils,” Shallotte voter Amanda Stepka told CPP.
Shallotte voter Amy Martinez said she feels good about her ability to sway local decision making and is happy to have voted.
In rural Lee County, voters were eager to cast their ballots but kept their candidate preferences closer to their chest.
Many cited “civic duty” as the driving force behind their attendance at the polls. One woman leaving a polling site in Sanford told CPP that safety was her No. 1 issue this election.
Several miles east in the town of Broadway, Blane McDonald celebrated his 18th birthday by casting his first ever vote at Broadway Elementary School with his dad and brother.
He called the experience “special,” and said he prioritized candidates whom he had personally seen speak or interacted with.
Other young voters noted that it was a complicated time to be voting.
“I feel tense,” Brunswick County voter Luke Tabor told CPP in Oak Island.
“I feel like it’s the most tense election of my lifetime. I’ve only voted twice but I’ve been watching since I was little. It’s tense and it’s too wild. It’s become less about politics and more about public spectacle. Less about policy more about feelings.”
Light Election Day turnout
Regardless of the reasons voters were headed to the polls on Election Day, poll workers were nearly unanimous in describing light turnout, which they generally credited to so much early voting.
Orange County featured high early voting numbers, especially in Hillsborough.
With only about 300 potential voters for the Central Recreation Center polling palce left by Election Day, Orange County poll workers were unsurprised by the light but steady turnout.
Poll worker Paige Bommarito said it was so slow that she was able to work on her knitting while waiting for Election Day voters around 10 a.m. Tuesday.
At some polling places, poll worker and campaign electioneers consistently outnumbered voters. But for many, working and volunteering at the polls this was also an important day.
“It’s interesting to learn how elections work,” Brunswick County high school student and poll worker Hayden Slader told CPP at an Oak Island polling place.
“And I’m a part of the National Honor Society so that gives me hours for that. The money is just an added bonus.”
In the heart of downtown Raleigh, the polling place at Edenton Street United Methodist Church seemed somewhat sleepy around 9 a.m., with no intake line and a smattering of voters filling out ballots at booths set up in the church’s gymnasium.
But looks can be deceiving. Precinct judge Rollin Kibbe told Carolina Public Press that up to that point more than 200 voters had filled out ballots Tuesday morning, which he said appeared to be a slight uptick from previous elections he had worked.
About 20 miles away in the southwest corner of Wake County, the suburban town of Holly Springs also had no line polling sites.
At the East Chatham precinct near Pittsboro, long lines greeted voters during the March primary and again during early voting, but Election Day voters on Tuesday encountered no lines at all.
In Carrboro, Orange County polling place workers told CPP that they’d had more than 100 voters turn out by about 10:45 a.m., not a large number but higher than they had expected giving the intense level of early voting.
Regardless of Election Day, the combined turnout including early voting left a strong impression on many poll workers.
At Broadway Elementary in Lee County, precinct judge Billy Keith told CPP that in the 14 years he’s been working local elections, the turnout this year has far surpassed anything he’s seen in past cycles.
Turnout also didn’t suppress a jovial mood at some locations.
Election Day spirits were high at Williston Middle in New Hanover County, located in Wilmington in Wilmington’s historically Black neighborhood, The Bottom. Signs and t-shirts read “Black Voters Matter.”
A DJ blasted rap songs, gospel remixes, and familiar pop and rock tunes as voters entered the Williston gymnasium. A man was getting ready to serve voters barbecue out of the back of his truck.
A few minor Election Day glitches
With 100 counties operating multiple polling places, something is sure to go wrong somewhere and a few mostly minor glitches cropped up.
At the East Chatham polling place chief precinct judge Chad Charles said a printer failure caused a delay while the equipment was rebooted, briefly bringing voting to a halt in the morning.
Precinct workers there described a small line forming for just a few minutes while this was worked out at a polling place that had otherwise seen no lines.
More serious problems cropped up in a few places. The State Board Elections conducted an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon to keep polls open for 30 minutes late at two precincts each in Burke County and Wilson County as a result.
In Wilson County, an Elm City polling place had a printer connection problem. In Burke County, a laptop had a problem booting up Tuesday morning at one Morganton polling place.
Editor’s note: Carolina Public Press staff members Sarah Michels, Jane Winik Sartwell, Lucas Thomae and Frank Taylor contributed this report.
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