NEW HANOVER COUNTY — With midterm elections taking place in 2026, the New Hanover County Board of Elections met Tuesday to discuss operations for the March primary. A debate about safety and access changed the initial early voting plan from what staff had proposed, dropping the Senior Resource Center and adding in the Northeast Library among the four options.
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The primary election is scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, with early voting taking place Feb. 12 through Feb. 28. Aside from congressional and state races, New Hanover County elections also are taking place for county commissioners, school board, sheriff, district attorney and more.
Insofar, only a Democratic commissioners’ primary is known to take place, though filing closes Dec. 19, which will put into focus a more clear picture of other primaries needed.
Interim Deputy Elections Director Jessica O’Neill called the primary election season a “different animal” at the county elections board’s meeting on Dec. 9. Because not every race or party may have challengers that dictate a primary be held, it can present challenges on knowing what to expect with voter turnout.
In 2022, midterm primaries had a 17.85% turnout of 175,101 registered voters. Of that, 41% — or almost 13,000 — cast votes during the early-voting period. The presidential primary election in 2024 was slightly higher with 22.57% turnout of 180,968 voters, and almost 40% casting ballots during early voting.
O’Neill surmised voter counts from the last midterm primary likely would increase this year by 3.5% or 4% — “just because our population has increased significantly in the last four years here in the county” — and early voting is becoming more popular.
The New Hanover County Board of Elections voted unanimously on where people will go to cast their ballots. Voters will be able to both register and cast ballots during the early voting period at four locations:
- New Hanover County Board of Elections – Multipurpose Room: 226 Government Center Drive
- Carolina Beach Town Hall – Police Training Room: 1121 N. Lake Park Blvd.
- Northeast Regional Library – Paynter Room: 1241 Military Cutoff Rd.
- Cape Fear Community College Main Campus – McLeod Building: 411 N. Front Street
Since it’s an even-numbered election year, all sites and hours must be open at the same time, whereas during odd-number years the board can stagger times at varied locations. The sites will open 8 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 12-13, 16-20 and 23-27. Early voting will take place during one full weekend, Feb. 21 and 22, noon to 5 p.m. Though the last day of early voting, by law, must open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. which takes place on Saturday, Feb. 28.
Originally, staff suggested a schedule that mostly matched 2025’s municipal elections, to include the new BOE building, Carolina Beach Town Hall, the New Hanover County Senior Resource Center and CFCC’s McLeod Building. The cost is $127,000 to staff four sites during the primary.
However, one of the busiest sites, the Northeast Library, was left off initially. The library and Senior Resource Center traditionally bring in most voters and board member John Lyon questioned the decision to leave off the library.
O’Neill said the board expressed a previous desire to go back to the BOE office, purpose-built to welcome voters.
“Also staffing five early-voting sites, during this particular period, we feel like, will be a huge strain on the staff, as far as workload and staffing them with election officials,” she said.
Lyon clarified he didn’t raise the question to add a fifth site, rather only choose whether staff should be at the elections office or the Northeast Library.
Derrick Miller provided historical context, noting during the 2025 municipal elections the public pushed back after learning the new, taxpayer-funded BOE building was not being used for voting. Also, state law mandates offices of the BOE or an in-lieu-of site are included in the voting plans.
Lyon found the library to be more accessible to people who live in the northern portion of the county and Wrightsville Beach. He thought it would be equitable for Wrightsville Beach residents to have a closer early voting location since Carolina and Kure beaches have their own.
Chair Jamie Getty suggested, instead, to switch out the Senior Resource Center for the Northeast Library.
Earlier in the meeting, O’Neill explained how the Senior Resource Center also had been a “sticking point” in recent elections. Capacity issues arose as senior programming is also scheduled during the elections, making it more crowded. Plus, she said the team had endured curbside voting obstacles.
The county oversees the center and a representative was clear it expected program interruption and didn’t have problems accommodating the site for early voting.
“We certainly feel like elections are important,” Assistant County Manager Lisa Wurtzbacher, also special assistant to the elections board, said.
Staff had considered doing away with the senior center voting location in its discussions, according to O’Neill. Yet, they thought it left a gap in serving people in the lower third section of New Hanover County, aside from Carolina Beach. The senior center location’s proximity was also analyzed, compared to heavy precinct numbers in the area, with O’Neill guessing the mileage difference would be 2-and-a-half to 4 miles to drive to either the BOE office or Northeast Library instead.
“Which doesn’t sound onerous,” O’Neill said. “And all of these sites are on public transportation lines as well.”
Getty added it’s not just about miles, but also time. Traffic on Military Cutoff Road, where the Northeast Library is located, tends to be heavily congested.
Miller claimed to be “agnostic” to which site was chosen: “I just hope we’re unanimous.”
If not, the State Board of Elections — now Republican-leaning — can decide the early voting plan, though it also must sign off on the one chosen by the county board regardless.
Lyon reversed his suggestion to remove BOE offices, switching instead to do away with the Senior Resource Center and adding in the Northeast Library.
Board member Jim Battle Morgan said he heard complaints about both locations before, but was more inclined to go with the staff’s original suggestion. His worry was the Northeast Library served only a specific geographical group.
O’Neill explained safety also was concerning at the Senior Resource Center, with curbside voting located in direct sunlight, so people may sit in cars for long periods of time, as lines can be lengthy. Not to mention, there were issues with curbside coordinators having glare from the sunshine in their eyes, which caused some to trip and fall, even pass out from the heat.
“March is pretty toasty by the time we get to early voting,” O’Neill added, noting curbside at the Northeast Library has less issues as it moves faster and includes more shade.
“And they’re only there to vote,” Getty offered, to which staff agreed, noting the library doesn’t have as heavy programming as the Senior Resource Center.
Morgan changed his mind about wanting to include the Senior Resource Center after hearing safety concerns.
Miller reminded everyone that whatever early voting plan is chosen, it should be similar to what they hope to see in November’s general election. Staff’s goal is to avoid changing or relocating early voting sites between a primary and general election at the end of the day.
“Because anytime we move a polling site, it creates lots of confusion from voters and we hear lots of negative feedback,” O’Neill said. “And that leads us back to why we are not recommending moving from McLeod either.”
Aside from the CFCC building, staff assessed other downtown locations as well, including the city’s Skyline Center headquarters. Though, it has limited parking for voters — only in nearby decks, meaning they would have to cross a busy road without a traffic light and in some cases use multiple stairwells in the parking decks.
Plus, the 929 N. Front St. address lacks adequate curbside voting options.
“Our curbside workers have to walk back and forth,” O’Neill explained. “And even at a brisk pace, at Skyline it would take 2 minutes. So that would add 4 minutes minimum walking time per round trip since there are multiple round trips per vote.”
BOE staff considered the new library on Grace Street downtown, but with construction still ongoing and the Cape Fear Museum’s relocation still underway in March, the location proved inefficient for now.
Downtown is one of the least used early sites by voters; O’Neill said more than 1,500 people turned out to the McLeod Building at CFCC during the municipal elections. However, this year, BOE staff is looking to ramp up social media campaigns and other communication efforts, particularly with a new communications coordinator on staff, to draw in younger voters and others.
“I also don’t want to give the impression to our downtown voters and our downtown population that we’re making it more difficult by constantly changing that location,” she said, referring to previous sites used, such as as the former downtown library on Chestnut Street. “Changing will give a bad look — find us, Whack-A-Mole.”
The board reached consensus on leaving the McLeod site and doing away with the Senior Resource Center in favor of adding the Northeast Library.
Interim director decided, precinct changes
The state board also will have to sign off on the interim director the BOE wholly approved Tuesday.
As the hiring process is underway to replace former executive director Rae Hunter-Havens, who resigned abruptly at the beginning of October, Crystal Whittaker has been recommended to serve in the meantime. Whittaker is an executive aide to the county manager’s office and has been working to learn the ropes with Lisa Wurtzbacher, named special assistant to the board in October. Whittaker will take over helping the BOE during its transition to new leadership.
“Her appointment provides continuity for the department’s day-to-day operations, while the board completes its search for a permanent director,” Chair Getty said in a county press release, also thanking Wurtzbacher for her work during the recent municipal elections.
Also at the meeting, the board took up a user agreement with Port City Community Church — or H05 voting precinct. The church asked to remove electioneering at its site, applicable to all candidates and parties. The goal is to not “disproportionately favor any political party, racial group, ethnic group or candidate,” according to the agenda.
Because it’s a nonpublic facility, site-specific restrictions are permitted by law. The board voted unanimously, with the agreement in effect through 2027, and state board is approval needed.
The county BOE also unanimously agreed to move a precinct polling place from Wrightsville Beach Elementary School to the Wrightsville Beach Town Hall. According to Eric Navagh, logistics coordinator for the BOE, they had received requests and feedback from the municipal elections to make the change, due to needing more ample parking and not impeding on anyone’s school day.
The elections board used the WB town hall previously, but when renovation work was needed years ago, it decided to move voters to the elementary school and never changed it back. Navagh and O’Neill said they met with the town manager and found it had sufficient space for voting operations, including check-in and enclosures.
With BOE approval, the Wrightsville Beach aldermen will have to sign off on the usage agreement for town hall to be a voting-day precinct in both the primary and general elections in 2026.
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