How long are the waits at early voting sites? Wake and Durham counties will tell you.

Voters have been setting turnout records in the early voting period before the Nov. 3 election, and the heightened interest, plus the need for social distancing, has meant long waits at some locations.

To help voters avoid long lines, Wake and Durham counties have websites that show estimated wait times at early voting locations in those counties.

Information on the Wake site at bit.ly/evwaittimes allows for healthy time cushions. Two Wake County locations on Monday afternoon showed wait times of one to two hours. But others show no wait or wait times of 5 to 10 minutes, 10 to 30 minutes or 30 to 60 minutes. There are 20 early voting poll sites.

In Wake County, a worker at each early voting location is asked to send an update at least once an hour, said John Hamlin, a Wake County spokesman, in an email. During early voting, residents can use any early voting site in their county.

The list allows voters know how long wait times are at sites other than those closest to their homes, Hamlin said.

Durham’s site at dcovotes.com/voters/voting/early-voting is more precise, showing exact minutes. The Durham site also allows users to search for the nearest early voting sites by entering an address.

Durham County gets wait times by giving the last voter at each site a card, and the site coordinator starts a timer, said Durham Elections Director Derek L. Bowens in an email.

When the voter gets to the check-in table, the coordinator stops the timer. The time is then fed electronically to the wait-time dashboard. The goal is to enter times every 30 minutes, he wrote.

When traffic is light, the site coordinator makes estimates.

“This has been a huge success and quite accurate,” Bowen wrote Monday afternoon. “We have had over 93,000 clicks on the application so far.”

How many votes have been cast in NC

North Carolina voters have cast more than 1.2 million ballots through Monday at one-stop voting locations, according to the N.C. Board of Elections’ turnout website. The website is updated every morning.

Combined with ballots cast by mail, more than 1.8 million votes have been cast, or 25.4% of the state’s registered voters, as of Monday.

In Wake County, 107,533 votes were cast in early voting as of Monday.

In Durham County, 50,298 votes were cast in person.

In Orange County, 18,366 votes were cast in person.

Early voting details

The early voting period lasts until Oct. 31. For early voting, there are multiple locations in each county. Check out this map (vt.ncsbe.gov/ossite/) of early voting sites. You can vote at any early voting site in the county where you live.

Early voting sites will have curbside voting available for anyone who cannot enter the building because of age, disability, medical condition that puts them at heightened risk of COVID-19, or symptoms of COVID-19.

If you prefer to vote by mail, the Board of Elections must receive your request by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

Once you’ve sent your ballot in, you can track it with a new app called BallotTrax. More information is at northcarolina.ballottrax.net.

Check out The N&O’s voter guide to view your ballot and to compare candidates’ positions.

This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 6:37 PM.