Counties extend hours for early voting

The flood of voters casting early ballots persuaded many North Carolina counties to extend today's deadline for early voting by several hours.

Wake, Durham, Johnston and Chatham counties are among those that will allow early voting until 5 p.m. The original deadline was 1 p.m., but the N.C. Board of Elections asked counties to give people more time because about a third of the state's registered voters had cast ballots through Thursday, the most recent tally available.

Orange County did not extend early voting hours. Board of Elections director Tracy Reams said voters have rarely had to wait longer than 15 minutes at any of the county's five early voting sites.

In Wake County and other area counties, officials reported a deluge of voters.

By day's end Thursday, 202,522 people had voted in Wake -- about 35 percent of the county's registered voters. Cherie Poucher, director of the Wake County Board of Elections, said she expected Friday and today to be the busiest days yet, fueling an "unprecedented" turnout.

As of 10 p.m. Thursday, more than 2 million people had voted statewide, including about 1.9 million at one-stop sites for registration and early voting.

Registered Democrats have outpaced registered Republicans and unaffiliated voters, according to the state Board of Elections. As of Thursday night, about 39 percent of the more than 2.8 million registered Democrats had voted early statewide, compared with about 31 percent of the state's more than 1.9 million registered Republicans. About 27 percent of unaffiliated voters cast early ballots.

Michael Ashe, director of the Durham County Board of Elections, said even adding four hours to early voting won't satisfy everyone eager to avoid long lines on Tuesday's Election Day.

"No matter what time you end it ... some will always wish it was later," Ashe said.