RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Super Tuesday is now less than a week away, and state election officials want people to know about changes that may affect when they see election results and how they cast an absentee ballot.
Steady streams of voters are casting their ballots ahead of election day, but State Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell says a change to the law means those early voting ballots won’t be counted until election night.
“The counties are not allowed to tabulate their early voting results until after the election day polls close, so they’ll do that after 7:30 p.m.” she explained, adding, “This was a decision by the legislature.”
Bell says that change means the public won’t see early voting results posted right after the polls close, like has happened in the past.
“We’re just trying to caution people, ask for patience,” Brinson Bell said. “Some of these results, we may have up in 30 minutes, but it may take an hour to two hours, potentially, before we see some of those those early voting results.”
She also says early votes often play a big role in election outcomes.
“Early voting is now typically the most popular voting method for folks, so this is the bulk of our election results and so it’s going to be trickling in on election night and could significantly change who’s leading and who’s behind,” she noted.
There’s also a change for people voting absentee by mail. The ballot must arrive at the county board of elections by 7:30 p.m. on election day. That means it may be too late to put it in the mailbox now.
“Generally, the U.S. Postal Service says give seven days to make sure of delivery, so yes we are past that window,” said Brinson Bell. “I would highly encourage folks to deliver their absentee-by-mail ballot, if that’s how they choose to vote, either to an early voting site by Saturday at 3 p.m. or deliver it to the county board of elections by 7:30 p.m. election day.”
North Carolina law now requires a photo ID to vote.
Keaton Eberly
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