North Carolina
12 lessons from first few days of early voting in North Carolina | Island Free Press
From the North Carolina Board of Elections
The State Board of Elections asked the county boards of elections across North Carolina for common voter questions, concerns, and misconceptions during the first days of in-person early voting.
As of Wednesday morning, 1,706,097 ballots have been cast, 21.89% of eligible voters, including 1,595,485 at early voting sites across the state.
The early voting period runs through Saturday, November 2, at 3 p.m. Mail-in ballots must be received by county Board of Elections offices by Tuesday, November 5, at 7:30 p.m.
We’ve compiled twelve lessons on early voting below:
Lines at early voting sites. This is a presidential election, and millions of North Carolinians will cast ballots in 2024. There will be lines at certain times at early voting sites and Election Day polling places. Be prepared. Wear comfortable shoes, bring a chair if you have difficulty standing for long periods of time, pack water or snacks, and depending on the weather forecast, consider bringing an umbrella or handheld fan. You can also check your county board of elections’ website to see if they have a wait time tracker for voting sites. Lines are typically longest at the beginning and end of the early voting period.
Photo ID. Many different types of photo ID are accepted, including driver’s licenses and passports. Find a complete list at BringItNC.gov. If you are older than 65 and your driver’s license was not expired on your 65th birthday, you can use that to vote. You do not have to bring your voter registration card, but you should bring an acceptable form of ID. If you do not have one, you can get one for free from your county board of elections office, or fill out an exception form at your voting site explaining why you were unable to show ID.
Secure, auxiliary bin. Every ballot scanner, or tabulator, at voting sites has a secure, auxiliary bin attached to it. If there is a problem with a tabulator – power outage, ballot jam, etc. – voters will temporarily place their ballots in the bin instead of inserting them in the tabulator. When the issue with the tabulator is resolved, a bipartisan team of election officials will insert the ballots from the bin into the tabulator. Additionally, the county board of elections will ensure the total number of ballots cast matches the number of voters who checked in at the site. This ensures every ballot is accounted for and counted.
With hundreds of tabulators used across the state during early voting and thousands on Election Day, occasionally a tabulator can experience a problem. This is why the auxiliary bin exists, and it is the industry standard used to address these situations in jurisdictions across the country.
In NC, poll workers often have to write on ballots. This is done for various reasons as required by law. Social media posts suggesting that writing on your ballot will invalidate it have been circulating for years, and they are false. For more information, see Fact: In NC, if an Election Worker Writes on Your Ballot, It Does Not Invalidate It | NCSBE.
Your ballot will count, even if you leave some contests blank. You do not have to make a selection in every contest on your ballot. If you skip contests, your votes will be counted in all other contests on your ballot. Leaving a contest blank will not invalidate your ballot.
Your ballot will count, regardless of voting method. The ballot of every eligible North Carolinian will be counted regardless of which voting method they choose – absentee, in-person early, or in-person on Election Day.
In NC, it is illegal to take a selfie with your ballot or photograph your ballot. North Carolina law prohibits photographing or videotaping voted ballots. Voters may use their electronic devices in the voting booth to access candidate information, provided they don’t use the devices to communicate with anyone or take photographs of their ballot or other voters. We encourage selfies with “I Voted” stickers at the voter selfie stations outside voting locations instead.
Spouses can vote in the same voting booth, if both request to do so. State law allows spouses to choose to vote together in the same voting booth. Poll workers should not encourage this practice; it should be up to both voters to decide.
Inactive voters are still registered voters. If an individual in “inactive” registration status shows up to vote, they will confirm their address with a poll worker, or update their address within that county, if necessary. They will also show photo ID as required by law.
Curbside voting. Voting from your car is an option for voters who are unable to enter the voting place without physical assistance due to age or disability. It is not for voters who do not want to wait in line. Curbside voters must sign a sworn statement affirming that because of age or disability, they are unable to enter the voting place without assistance.
Poll worker duties. Poll workers are there to ensure voters can cast your ballot securely and efficiently. They cannot discuss candidates or ballot items with voters.
Candidate information. Volunteers and supporters of particular candidates are allowed to pass out flyers and other information about candidates, provided they are outside the buffer zone, which should be marked at every voting site. If campaigners become too aggressive or are inside the buffer zone, voters should report it to an election official.
More than 100 dogs were rescued from an apparent puppy mill in North Carolina where they were kept in “egregious conditions”, an animal shelter said.
The SPCA of Wake county on Wednesday removed 101 dogs from a home that appeared to have been functioning as a puppy mill. In a statement online, the shelter said that the dogs had been “surrounded by their own waste, packed 5 or 6 to a cage and stacked floor to ceiling, or free roaming in cramped quarters and filth”.
The shelter, working alongside Raleigh animal control, also said that there had been numerous mother dogs with very young nursing puppies, adding that 19 of those dogs were now in SPCA Wake’s care.
“These events unfolded very quickly. Within an hour of receiving this call for help, we were on the property ready to take as many pets as possible,” the shelter said.
Pictures posted online showed puppies of various breeds in cages and with matted fur as they were being cared for by shelter employees. Speaking to CBS 17, SPCA Wake spokesperson Samantha Ranlet said that many of the dogs were toy poodle mixes, pomeranians, chihuahuas, yorkies and other small “doodle” mixes.
In a follow-up post on Friday, the shelter said that its medical team had been treating each dog’s individual needs, adding that many of them were suffering from skin and dental issues.
“The matted dirty fur is coming off in heaps,” the shelter said.
Additional pictures posted online showed clumps of matted fur being trimmed from dogs of varying sizes.
“We’re seeing a lot of smiles from these guys. This is the biggest moment in these dogs’ lives, and we are feeling so grateful to be a part of their healing. Thank you to everyone who has donated or reached out in support of these efforts. This rescue is a big undertaking, and we can’t do it without you,” the shelter said.
In addition to the 101 dogs, the homeowner, who police said was “cooperative”, also surrendered 21 chickens.
Speaking to CBS 17, Ranlet said: “The dogs in our care are being medically evaluated and some moved into foster homes … They will be placed up for adoption once they have received veterinary care and recuperated. We need to make sure they are healthy and rehabilitated so they can start fresh as somebody’s family members.”
It remains unclear whether the homeowner will face charges. The Guardian has reached out to the Raleigh police department for comment.
North Carolina
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North Carolina
400-pound monster alligator named Pepe ‘detained’ for ‘being a dinosaur without proper papers’ in NC
The scales of justice came for Pepe.
Cops detained – and rescued – a monster 10-foot alligator they nicknamed Pepe the Gator sunbathing on a busy road in North Carolina and “charged” him on suspicion of being a “dinosaur.”
“Witnesses say he was just chilling and snapping, clearly ignoring the ‘no loitering or lounging on roadways’ sign,” the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a playful press release last week. “Pepe has been cited for Suspicion of Being a Dinosaur Without Proper Papers, Public Loitering with Intent to Sunbathe, and Obstructing Traffic.”
The responding deputies and officers from the NC Wildlife Resources Commission who got the call on May 25 managed to safely remove Pepe, but not before posing for pictures where they straddle him like rodeo riders.
“He was 10 feet long, 400 pounds. He was an absolute monster,” Trevor Dunnell, spokesman for the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office told the Post Thursday.
“They did a fantastic job of wrangling him.”
To indicate the scale of the gator, Dunnell pointed out how, in the picture, even with three grown men on top of him, Pepe’s still not covered.
“The picture really doesn’t do it justice, I mean 10 feet … 10 feet is a basketball goal, that is a massive creature,” he said.
Although 10 feet seems big, it’s nothing compared to the largest gator on record – 14 feet and 3 and a half inches.
Deputies and wildlife officials used a towel to cover Pepe’s eyes — eye contact is what triggers the animal’s notorious death roll, Dunnell explained — and electrical tape to seal his mouth shut.
“It was definitely some MacGyver stuff they had to use,” he said. “He may not have a good time during the removal, but he was playfully enough about it later to understand that, ‘Hey, man, you gotta do what you gotta do.’”
Dunnell said the office received blowback from people online wishing the cops had just left Pepe alone. but Dunnell was quick to point out that leaving the reptile on the side of the road could have posed a hazard not only to residents but also to the gator.
“You never know what can happen when kids are running around,” he said. “And the gator could wind up in the middle of the road. It could hurt drivers but it could hurt him, too.”
Dunnell said he hopes to see body camera footage of Pepe’s apprehension. The two deputies and the wildlife official in the picture are happy to be riding him, Dunnell said, adding that if authorities encounter another Pepe, they’ll know who to call.
“But some deputies were absolutely not fine,” he said. “When they got back, they were saying, ‘You’re not going to catch me on that thing. I’m not going to go anywhere near it!’”
Pepe was far from home, and Dunnell suspects that it was a hot day and he was looking for a good spot to bask.
“How far he wandered is anybody’s guess,” he said. “It must’ve been several miles at least.”
After further investigation, Dunnell said, they declined to charge Pepe. Instead, they drove him to a boat ramp at nearby Camp Geiger, a satellite facility of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
“I think we’ve touched base with the gator and let him know we dropped the charges,” he joked.
“Pepe’s back to his normal routine, he’s hanging out near the beach and lounging in his natural habitat, hunting for his food and looking for a girlfriend.”
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