North Carolina exceeds 2.3 million early votes in 2024 general election

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – It’s been a record-breaking election season in North Carolina already, as more than 2.3 million people in the state have cast their ballots. Tens of thousands of those votes came out of western North Carolina, where concerns over voting came up immediately after Hurricane Helene devastated the area.

“At one point we thought we would need as many as 15 secure tents in the disaster areas. As of this morning, we believe there will only be a need for seven,” Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the N.C. State Board of Elections , said.

Legislation passed on Thursday requires two western counties, McDowell and Henderson Counties, to add early voting sites to accommodate the number of voters. Brinson Bell says it’s on top of the already planned ones.

“As we came into early voting, there were 80 sites planned in these disaster-affected counties, and we were able to open 76 of the planned early voting sites,” she said.

With hundreds of people displaced after Hurricane Helene and temporarily living in other parts of the state, there are still ways to vote.

“You can still vote, but if you’re not going to be able to vote in your home county during the early voting period or on election day, you must act quickly,” Brinson Bell said. “You should request an absentee ballot now, and I do mean now, to be delivered to wherever you are staying temporarily.”

Early voting ends on Nov. 2.

If you haven’t registered yet, remember you can register and vote at the same time at any early voting site in your county while early voting is open.

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