Saturday, November 2, 2024

‘Never seen lines like this’: Attendees face hours-long waits at early voting sites

Voters line up outside the new NHC Board of Elections building on Oct. 17. (Courtesy Jill Hopman)

SOUTHEASTERN N.C. — The first day of early voting always sees an influx of people ready to cast their ballots, but Oct. 17 may go down in New Hanover County as one of its busiest. 

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At one point during the day, each of the county’s five voting sites reported waits around two hours long, with Carolina Beach’s location seeing the longest waits. 

As of 5 p.m., the board of elections office’s wait-time tracker indicated 100 minutes. As for the others, the Northeast Library is 90 minutes, Cape Fear Community College is 60 minutes, the NHC Senior Resource Center is 20 minutes and the newly opened Board of Elections’ building is 30 minutes. Polls close at 7:30 p.m.

Port City Daily reached out to NHC Election Director Rae Hunter-Havens for information on voter experience and volume, but did not receive a response by press. 

PCD also sent inquiries to Brunswick and Pender counties. Brunswick County Election Director Sara Lavere said the county was experiencing similar waits. As of 5 p.m., the longest wait times in Brunswick County are 155 minutes at the Leland Cultural Arts Center and 128 minutes at the Sunset Beach Community Center. 

Jill Hopman, chair of the New Hanover County Democratic Party, said she has “never seen lines like this at any site, in any cycle” since she moved back to Wilmington in 2020.

“CFCC, which is usually pretty dead at the beginning of early voting, had lines down the whole building at 9 a.m. this morning; the NE library broke records within two hours of opening,” Hopman said.

Her team has diverted people to the government center for much of the day, due to having the shortest wait. But it resulted in 40-to-60-minute wait times by 3:45 p.m.

Hopman said she thought the crowd was evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, not a surprise to her due to the county’s “very purple bellwether.” 

According to poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight, Trump and Harris are in a dead heat in North Carolina, with Trump showing 48% support in state polls, versus 47.5% for Harris.

Presidential election years normally turn out higher voting percentages; however there have also been midterm elections in recent years showing more people participating. According to Pew Research Center, “the 2018, 2020 and 2022 were three of the highest-turnout U.S. elections of their respective types in decades.”

2020, particularly, stands out with Democratic Joe Biden facing off against Republican Donald Trump. Pew reported that two-thirds of the voting population cast a ballot — the most since any national election in more than a century.

In North Carolina, 4.3 million voters showed up to early vote in 2020, according to the State Board of Elections site. Democrats have traditionally been considered the ones who mostly cast early ballots — though, the margins have closed during recent election years. 

For instance, in 2020 there were 1.7 million Democratic voters to 1.4 million Republican votes. Each represented 65.7% of their parties’ registered affiliations. Roughly 1.4 million unaffiliated voters cast ballots in 2020 during early voting.

Early numbers show 188,921 people are approved to vote in New Hanover County this year. Of that, unaffiliated voters make up the lion’s share at 79,958. Democrats have 51,160 voters and Republicans have 55,666.

On Thursday, NHC Board of Elections’ data indicate 6,100 people turned out to the polls, with 2,107 making up Democratic voters, 2,149 Republicans and 1.914 unaffiliated.

Hopman said she thought this year’s election was particularly salient for voters. 

“We are told every four years that this is the most important election of our lives,” she said. “Well this cycle, I think that’s it’s finally true. We can elect the first woman and female person of color in American history, or we can return to MAGA right-wing extremism. Both prospects excite and scare many voters.” 

PCD reached out to New Hanover County GOP chair Nevin Carr, but did not receive a response by press.


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