Saturday is the last day to vote early. Here’s the turnout so far in Mecklenburg.
Saturday marks the final day of early voting ahead of Super Tuesday, and so far in Mecklenburg County, almost 45,000 residents have cast their ballots.
Since Feb. 13, when early voting kicked off, turnout was stagnant but then gradually increased — climbing from an initial 2,200 people on the first day to more than 7,300 on Thursday, according to data from the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections.
All 20 early voting sites in Mecklenburg will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
As long as people are in line by 3 p.m., they can still vote. Photo identification is not required at the polls.
“We’ll probably see a lot of younger voters and minority voters (Saturday),” Gerry Cohen, a former special counsel to the N.C. General Assembly who now serves on the Wake County Board of Elections, predicted. “Go early in the day — the lines tend to be shorter earlier in the morning.”
The Morrison Regional Library, near SouthPark mall has garnered the most voters, with 4,700 tallied as of Thursday. That’s followed by early voting sites in University City, with almost 4,400 people, and the Matthews Branch Library, with nearly 3,300 people.
In addition to the presidential primary, there are a wide range of national and local races, including for U.S. Senate and House, governor, lieutenant governor, state auditor and state treasurer.
There’s also a crowded Democratic primary for Mecklenburg County commissioner, with eight candidates competing for three at-large seats.
Early voting turnout statewide
Turnout among registered Democratic voters throughout North Carolina has more than doubled during the early voting period, rising from more than 14,600 people on Feb. 13 to 39,200 on Thursday, according to Old North State Politics, based on state election data.
“It feels like after a very slow start, people have finally gotten engaged in the Democratic Party,” Michael Bitzer, a Catawba College political scientist, said. “The Democratic coalition is energized, but we’ll have to see how they spread out their votes...It feels like people are getting their minds made up, even though there is unsettledness.”
Turnout among unaffiliated voters across North Carolina has similarly skyrocketed as early voting comes to a close. On Thursday, for example, more than 14,700 unaffiliated voters cast their ballots, compared to just over 1,000 unaffiliated voters on Feb. 16.
But there’s been a decline in black voters in this election cycle, Bitzer said.
Four years ago, 39% of early voters in North Carolina’s primary were black, compared with 32% recorded so far in this early voting period, according to state data.
New voting technology
Mecklenburg County residents will vote on new touch-screen machines that come equipped with accessibility features, such as enlarged text and color contrasts.
The ExpressVote universal voting system sends prompts to users as they navigate a series of screens — telling people, for instance, if they can choose more candidates in certain races. The machine prints out physical copies of ballots, which voters will verify and then insert into a separate digital scanner.
“So far, everyone loves them,” Kristin Mavromatis, spokeswoman for the county’s Board of Elections, said Friday, adding her office hasn’t received a single complaint about the machines.
The new equipment is similar to the direct recording devices that have been used in the county since 2006.
Roosevelt Maske, 77, a Democratic precinct official who voted Tuesday on UNC Charlotte’s campus, said he was recently trained on the new equipment.
“I love them — it’s a pretty simple machine,” Maske said.
Presidential candidate visits to N.C.
Courting black voters, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders attended an interfaith Ash Wednesday service in Goldsboro at the church of Rev. William Barber, the former state NAACP president. And on Thursday, Sanders led a campaign rally and a march to an early voting site at Winston-Salem State University, a historically black college.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is visiting St. Augustine’s University, a private HBCU, in Raleigh Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is holding a “Rally in Raleigh” Saturday night.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar attended two “grassroots” events Thursday in Greensboro and Raleigh, where she also participated in a Fox News town hall.
Klobuchar and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be in Charlotte on Saturday for the Blue NC event.
Where to vote Saturday
Here are all the early voting locations in Mecklenburg County:
Beatties Ford Road Library — 2412 Beatties Ford Road.
Bette Rae Thomas Recreation Center — 2921 Tuckaseegee Road.
Cornelius Town Hall — 21445 Catawba Ave.
Hal Marshall Building — 618 N. College St.
Hickory Grove Library — 5935 Hickory Grove Road.
Hornet’s Nest Pavilion — 6301 Beatties Ford Road.
Independence Regional Library — 6000 Conference Drive.
Main Library — 310 N. Tryon St.
Matthews Branch Library — 230 Matthews Station St.
Mint Hill Branch Library — 6840 Matthews-Mint Hill Road.
Morrison Regional Library — 7015 Morrison Blvd.
North County Regional Library — 16500 Holly Crest Lane.
South Boulevard Library — 4429 S. Blvd.
Sugar Creek Library — 4045 N. Tryon St.
UNC Charlotte Belk Gym — 8911 University Road.
Old Pier 1 — 8802 JW Clay Blvd.
West Boulevard Library — 2157 W. Blvd.
Former Fox & Hound restaurant — 15235 John J Delaney Drive.
Former Rite Aid — 7601 Pineville-Matthews Road.
Former Hollywood Video — 11130 S. Tryon St.