Dispatches from Election Day (and night) in the Triangle
The nation votes for a new president Tuesday. Polls in North Carolina will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tar Heel State voters will decide races for governor, U.S. Senate and state Supreme Court.
Posted — UpdatedAfter millions of dollars, thousands of blaring television ads and countless visits by presidential candidates and their surrogates, North Carolina voters will decide who gets the state's electoral votes for president, along with the winners of hundreds of other statewide and local contests Tuesday.
See below for updates from around the Triangle as WRAL covers Election Day:
The state board also extended voting in one Columbus County precinct by 30 minutes.
Lawson told The Associated Press that about two dozen other counties using the same software hadn't reported problems and that Durham County officials might have failed to clear out caches of votes cast during the primaries.
"We have not yet seen any evidence that would justify extending voting hours for the entirety of Durham County due to a brief interruption in one of their 57 precincts," Thomas Stark, general counsel for the state GOP, said in a statement. "By law, an extension in voting hours would require votes cast during the extension be done by provisional ballot, and whether those provisional ballots would be counted are subject to post-election legal proceedings. We do not want any voter to be disenfranchised by relying on a provisional ballot cast under the false expectation their ballot will automatically be counted."
"We need every voter to vote," state NAACP President Rev. William Barber said in a statement. "We urge all North Carolina voters to stay at the polls until they have voted. Do not be deterred or discouraged. We will fight the legal battles; you have to fight the battle against discouragement."
The State Board of Elections is expected to meet at 6 p.m. to go over Durham's request and requests from other counties to extend voting times.
Several voters got a chance to get some snuggles and love from puppies at Dillard Drive Elementary School in Raleigh.
The Bethesda Precinct was forced to close for about 90 minutes Tuesday morning when it ran out of authorization to vote forms, but it reopened before noon, officials said.
Voter Jessica Tompkins said she won't let a longer wait keep her from voting.
"You waited until today, you got to get it done. So, I mean, staying at home isn't an option in my book," she said. "The lines aren't that bad, so get out and vote."
The State Board of Elections advised Durham County officials to use the paper check-in process at all of the county's polling locations due to the issues, Durham County Board of Elections director Kate Cosner said.
"We are asking voters to be patient with us. It's like going back in time a little bit," she said.
Donald Trump, Jr. told CNN's New Day Tuesday that he thinks his father "will remain involved somewhat" if he loses the election. He said he hopes that the energy surrounding his father's campaign "goes back to the people we are trying to fight for, the people who haven't had a voice in a long time."
Many were inspired by a Facebook group called Pantsuit Nation that has more than 2 million members. Some are also wearing white in honor of the suffragists who wore white when they fought for women's voting rights in the early 1900s.
The county said on Twitter there was a "minor glitch" in the electronic check-in system, so workers are using manual poll books to verify voter registration.
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Here are the answers to last-minute questions you may have as the campaigns wrap up:
Where and when can I vote?
Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Unlike during the early voting period, there is no same-day registration on Election Day, so voters must be registered in advance in order to vote.
Do I need photo ID?
No.
The vast majority of voters will just need to state their name and address when they go to the polls.
Stay in line! As long as you're in line by 7:30 p.m., you should be able to vote.
Can I bring my phone to vote?
You can bring your phone to look at reference materials such as sample ballots, but talking on the phone and texting aren't allowed. Also, photos are largely banned inside voting areas, and it's illegal to take a picture of your ballot, so no "selfies" in the voting booth.
Hey, I want to write in my mother's name for president. Will she get a vote?
Sorry, no. Only write-in candidates who qualify in advance will be tallied. The only write-in candidate for president recognized in North Carolina is Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate.
Speaking of president, how many votes does it take to win an electoral vote?
North Carolina, like 47 other states, is a winner-take-all state in the presidential race. That means whoever wins statewide here – even if they have just one more vote than the next closest candidate – that candidate will get all 15 of North Carolina's electoral votes. Only Nebraska and Maine split their electoral votes.
Nationwide, a candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
I've been so caught up in the presidential race, what else is on the ballot?
Voters will also choose members of the state House and state Senate. Although Republicans aren't expected to lose control of either chamber, if Democrats make inroads in suburban areas like those surrounding Raleigh, the GOP could loose its veto-proof super-majority.
Give me a piece of trivia that I can use if I strike up a conversation while waiting to vote.
Four presidents have lost the national popular vote but won the electoral college. The most recent was George W. Bush in 2000. The other three all came in the 19th century: John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes and Grover Cleveland.
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