North Carolina
Voting time extended at two North Carolina polling places. Here’s why.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted Tuesday to extend hours for two polling places due to delays at the beginning of the day.
Voting will be extended by 30 minutes at Wilson County’s Gardners Elementary School and the Pilot Mountain polling place in Burke County. These locations will now close at 8 p.m.
In Wilson County, poll workers were unable to print authorization to vote forms from about 6:40 a.m. to 8:07, resulting in about 10 voters leaving the location. If a voter casts a ballot at this location after 7:30 p.m., they will vote by provisional ballot, the board said. In Pilot Mountain, voting was delayed due to laptop technological issues. Around five voters left at the Pilot Mountain location.
This extension will only impact results being processed in Wilson and Burke counties. All other counties can close like there were no extensions, the board’s general counsel Paul Cox said in the meeting.
Polling location hours can be extended if there is a delay that extends more than 15 minutes, State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.
Out of the over 2,600 polling places across the state, those were the only two reported extensions as of 4:30 p.m.