On Election Day in North Carolina, you must vote at the polling place corresponding to the precinct in which you live.
You may vote at any Early Voting site in your county during the Early Voting period, and may vote anywhere (given that you reside permanently in the county in which you intend to vote) utilizing Absentee by Mail as long as the ballot is returned to your county’s Board of Elections office.
This is because on Election Day in most NC counties each polling place only has the registration list for their attached precinct, which is how the system is intended to work legally. Early Voting sites are different because poll workers there have access to the entire county’s registration list. This is why anyone in the county can vote at any Early Voting site.
The State Board of Elections in North Carolina maintains a very useful online registration lookup site, the Voter Search Tool. This tool, when an actively registered voter enters their information, will display a wealth of information related to when, where, and how they can vote.
Currently in North Carolina, polls are open statewide from 6:30am to 7:30pm on Election Day. This does not change election to election and is strictly followed unless, for whatever reason, a polling place is delayed in opening or is prevented from operating during the day for a period of time. In the latter case, the State Board of Elections can authorize certain polling places in that county to remain open for a (typically as close as possible to) commensurate amount of time on Election Night.
Also note that if you are in line when poll closing time arrives, you will always be afforded an opportunity to vote.
All Early Voting sites in Alamance County can be voted at by any resident of Alamance County who is eligible to vote. Residence in a particular precinct requiring a person to vote at that particular precinct’s polling place only applies on Election Day.
This principle applies within each individual county in North Carolina (i.e. Early Voting sites in each county can be voted at by anyone in the county they are physically located in, whereas precincts can only be voted at by those who reside in the precinct they are physically located in).
Early Voting hours are posted in a number of different places, once they have been decided (below list applies to Alamance County, but most county offices post hours in similar locations for their county):
- At the Main Elections Office
- In other county buildings such as the Main County Office Building, the County Annex Building, the courthouse, etc
- On the Board of Elections Website
- At Early Voting sites themselves
Outside of a mandatory period conforming to current law (8:00am to 7:30pm on weekdays, starting the third Thursday prior to a given Election), individual county Boards of Elections have leeway to open Early Voting for additional time on weekends. County Boards of Elections may also shorten weekday Early Voting hours to business hours (8:00am to 5:00pm) for odd-year Elections and 2nd Primaries, accounting for volume.
If the decision is made to open Early Voting sites on a weekend day or days, all sites must be open for the same hours on said day or days. Note that the last Saturday prior to an Election is always open for Early Voting until 3:00pm by law and is included as part of the standard required Early Voting period. Any other weekend days are in addition to that Saturday.
The number of early voting sites open during a particular Election is contingent upon volume expected in that Election, jurisdictions applicable, and specific site considerations. This decision is up to each county Board of Elections, and is submitted a few months before each Election for State approval. Counties whose Boards cannot unanimously agree on a plan have whatever disputes there are settled by the State.
In Alamance County, there has been little contention over Early Voting hours. Typically, our Board agrees on one or two additional weekend Early Voting days, a Saturday and/or a Sunday, and often a third weekend day for General Presidential Elections.
In North Carolina, a voter may choose to both register and vote at the same time during Early Voting. Note that if you choose to register at Early Voting, you must vote immediately afterwards in order for your vote to be processed normally for that particular Election (i.e. if you register at Early Voting, then leave and try to vote on Election Day you will have to vote provisionally).
Also, someone who chooses to register and vote at Early Voting is subject to the same requirements anyone who applies for a brand new registration is, with the only major difference being an expedited time frame.
As of 2024, voters who provide a HAVA ID for the purposes of same-day registration that does not have an address matching that on the photo ID provided for voting will have to vote provisionally. For more details, visit the NCSBE Voter Identification page linked on the main ‘About Elections’ page.
Yes, you may wear clothing supporting a candidate, party, or political position to vote. You may also have on your person materials given to you by electioneers outside the polling place or elsewhere by political volunteers.
What is prohibited for voters (and everyone else) is distributing the above materials inside the polling place, or engaging any voter in discussion that could be considered trying to sway their vote.
Pursuant to 08 NCAC 10B .0107(a), a voter may use electronic materials as reference while voting, but any communication with an outside party is considered to be ‘assistance’ with voting.
In practice, this means that it is permissible to be looking at your phone in the polling place, but if you are talking on it you will be asked to stop.
This depends on how long it has been since you originally registered and whether or not your registration fully validated, as well as where precisely you are presenting to vote.
Regardless of circumstances it is Federal law that you can never be denied an opportunity to fill out a ballot based on questions regarding your residency to prevent situations where someone is disenfranchised by mistake, but depending on what the specific circumstances are you may have to fill out a ballot to be researched later in order to determine you are in fact eligible to vote where you are presenting to vote (e.g. a provisional ballot).
To avoid any extra steps before voting or confusion, please keep your address up to date with your county Board of Elections office.
In North Carolina, there are no laws specifically governing the carrying of weapons at a polling place, however, applicable laws governing public/government and private property still apply.
If a polling place is* public/government property*, the most common example being a school, *no weapons are allowed to be carried on premises by* anyone aside from an on-duty law enforcement officer. If a polling place is private property, such as a church or a mall, the right to carry a firearm on said property rests on the decision of the property owner, and is contingent upon posted signage.
If a private property owner permits visitors to carry firearms, openly or otherwise, they may do so in a polling place if it is located at such a property. The reverse is also true; if a private property owner does not permit visitors to carry firearms openly or otherwise and has posted signage stating such, they are forbidden from doing so at a polling place* *that is located at such a property.
Before visiting any polling place with a firearm in North Carolina, ensure that it is private property and that the property owner permits the carrying of firearms within to avoid risking potential prosecution.
A ‘buffer zone’ is the location surrounding the entrance to a building containing a voting enclosure or the voting enclosure itself that is not the actual voting enclosure but is considered as such with respect to restrictions on electioneering and partisan behavior (N.C.G.S. 163-166.4). Within this zone, as in the voting enclosure itself, NC citizens are entitled to freedom from any influence on how they vote.
This zone extends from the entrance of a polling place a minimum of 25 up to 50 feet depending on specific site circumstances, measured roughly semi-circularly. It also extends six feet circularly around any curbside voter’s vehicle at a minimum, with more distance encouraged where available (Numbered Memo 2020-20 – Note other elements of this memo (specifically related to COVID-19) have since been superseded, but buffer zone guidance still applies).
It is also important to note that the smaller distance affixed to curbside voting guidance is intended to allow for situations where space is limited and/or a line for curbside voting is present, and these factors render it impossible to physically separate electioneers from curbside voters by a larger distance.
Distance guidelines for curbside voting apply to physical proximity, however, electioneers are forbidden from communicating with curbside voters who are actually in the process of voting regardless of distance. For example, shouting ‘Vote Blue” or “Vote Red” directly towards someone actively voting a curbside ballot from across the parking lot could easily be considered voter intimidation.
‘Spoiling’ a ballot refers to the legally defined procedure for invalidating a ballot for voting use. Some examples of situations where this is done are:
- When a ballot is damaged or otherwise unreadable by machine
- When a ballot is overvoted or mistakenly voted and spoiling is requested by a voter
- When a voter decides they actually do not want to vote after already marking a ballot, prior to the ballot’s tabulation
Spoiled ballots are marked ‘spoiled’ with a stamp and placed in a separate container from other ballots. These ballots are not discarded until well after the Election, because they are necessary for ballot reconciliation procedures (i.e. checking to ensure that the number of ballots returning from a polling place to Board of Elections personnel is the same number that was issued to that polling place).
Legal References: N.C.G.S 163-166.7; 08 NCAC 10B .0104
That depends entirely on whether or not you are willing to sign an affidavit stating that you are unable to enter the polling place due to physical disability.
Numbered Memo 2020-20 states “Any voter who votes curbside must sign the curbside affidavit. A person is not eligible to vote curbside solely because they are the driver or passenger in a car with a voter who is eligible to vote curbside”. Note other elements of this memo (specifically those related to COVID-19) have since been superseded, but the above guidance is still current.
So, under current state guidance, curbside voting as it is defined in N.C.G.S. 163-166.9 is taken to be intended solely for those with an attested disability preventing them from accessing the polling place. The sole requirement for voting curbside is that that voter sign the affidavit stating they are unable to enter the polling place due to disability.
False attestation to the aforementioned affidavit is a Class I Felony (N.C.G.S. 163-275(4)).
