I've been driving people to the six early voting stations in Wilmington. Actually, I've only been to two: The one at the Government Center near Ten Pin Alley, and the one downtown at 805 North Third, the northern end of the Cape Fear Community College campus.
The lines got longer each day I drove: 30 minutes, then an hour, then 1 to 2 hours, and this morning over 3 hours. (As you can sort of see from that very surreal picture I snapped with my cell phone.)
But New Hanover County declined to extend its early voting hours, despite the fact that many counties in NC are extending them today until 5 pm. (New Hanover's closed today at 1 pm.) I emailed Margaret Haynes, chair of the New Hanover Board of Elections, and asked her why. Here's what she said:
I appreciate your involvement and concern.
50 North Carolina Counties did not extend early voting. The Star News article is totally erroneous. Each locality had to have a meeting to discuss extending.
There are many localities that are not running as smoothly as we are. We know there are lines, but many lines are moving fairly quickly - 20 to 40 minutes. We have many steps to prepare for Tuesday...where we will have 43 sites open to vote.
If we close at 1:00, we will not finish voting people until probably 3:00. It will be another hour or two for paperwork in each site. Then property management MUST retrieve the equipment, and return it all to the government center to be locked down.
On Sat. we are also -as always- distributing ballots and materials and supplies to 43 precinct workers...this is done from the Government Center site.
The computers used to check people in at one-stop all have to be checked, backed-up and reconfigured to support the unprecedented CALL CENTER that we will be operating out of the Emergency response center on Election Day.
This will take hours to accomplish.
We can not expect permanent staff, temporary staff and others to work 24 hours a day. They are already working 16+ hours a day. It is my understanding that people are actually threatening to quit in other localities that have extended.
Unfortunately the public has no idea how involved and detailed our work must be in order to maintain the integrity of the vote.
If you want election day to go smoothly, we need to stick with the state approved plan and proceed in an orderly fashion.
This Board of Elections has worked deligently to modernize the office, to be forward thinking in using technology and to do everything we possibly can do to support and enhance the voting process.
Thanks for all of your hard work on getting folks to the polls. We are doing the best we can with limited resources.
I know that folks at the local Democratic office feel politics were involved in the decision; longer voting hours means more likely votes for Obama, and fewer Obama voters turning away from the polls on Tuesday. Local politics here tends toward the conservative, as most of you know.
On the other hand, I can see her point. These folks are working very hard. In fact, I'd like to extend kudos and appreciation to all the election officials working at the downtown station. They were unfailingly polite, helpful, and patient, despite the huge crowds and often clueless voters.
- Dan Tynan
