Early voting for November election begins statewide

To encourage more people to register to vote and cast their ballots, North Carolina and other states have offered early voting for several years. The system is also called "no excuses" voting because it provides several opportunities other than on Election Day for people to go to the polls.

One-stop voting is available weekdays and Saturdays through Oct. 30 – three days before the Nov. 2 election – in all North Carolina counties. Some counties will also have Sunday hours for voting.

Most counties statewide will hold one-stop voting at the local board of elections office, the county government building or the public library in the county seat. Urban counties like Wake, Durham and Cumberland will also open satellite voting sites during the week of Oct. 25.

Thirteen people are running for an open seat on the state Court of Appeals, and the instant runoff, which asks for voters to select their three top choices for the post, will determine a winner without holding a runoff election in December.

Under the system, if no candidate wins outright based on the first-choice votes, elections officials count the second- and third-place votes for the top two candidates to determine the winner.